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1 



THE FOREIGN POLICY OF 
WOODROW WILSON 

1913-1917 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

KKW VORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO - DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNB 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



THE FOREIGN POLICY OF 
WOODROW WILSON 

1913-1917 



BY 

EDGAR E. ROBINSON 

Assistant Professor of American History, Leland 
Stanford Junior University 

AND 

VICTOR J, WEST 

Assistant Professor of Political Science, 
Leland Stanford Junior University 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1917 

±11 rights reserved 



7^ 



Copyright, 1917, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published December, 191 7. 



B£C -S 1917 



Norluooti ^rcss : 
Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



©C/.447.9429 



\\J) 



/^^ 



PREFACE 

It has been the aim of the authors to present an ac- 
count of the development of the poHcy followed by 
Woodrow Wilson in dealing with the foreign relations 
of the United States during the years 191 3-1 91 7, and to 
provide in convenient form the more important state- 
ments of President Wilson and his Secretaries of State 
in announcing and carrying forward that policy. No 
attempt has been made to write a history of the diplomacy 
oi the period or to discuss with any thought of finality 
the multitude of questions that fill it. The paramount 
problems, the fundamental principles, the great decisions, 
— these only have been given extended treatment. Be- 
cause the period was so filled with rapid changes it 
seemed essential to append a carefully selected chronology 
of the significant events in American foreign relations. 

In public discussions great stress has been put upon 
the events which preceded the entrance of the United 
States into the Great War and upon President Wilson's 
addresses and proclamations thereby called forth. The 
full understanding of the meaning of those utterances 
and of the implications of President Wilson's policy is to 
be found in the examination of the earlier and in some 
respects more significant period of his administration 
which preceded the opening of the Great War. 

Leland Stanford Junior University, 
September i, 1917. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

PAGE 

The Development of the Policy . . '. i-i57 

CHAPTER 

I Foundations .^ 3 

II Principles in Practice 24 

III Maintenance of Neutrality V 44 

IV Freedom of the Seas 64 

V Preparation for Defence 80 

VI Formulation of the Issue iii 

VII War to Insure Peace 130 

VIII Leadership of Woodrovv Wilson : 149 

PART II 
More Important Events in American Foreign Relations 159-175 

PART III 

More Important Utterances of the Administration . . 177-41 1 

/ I. Statement of President Wilson with regard to relations 
with the republics of Central and South America. March 
II, 1913 179 

2. Statement of President Wilson with regard to the proposed 

Six Power loan and relations with China. March 18, 1913 181 

3. Extract from an appeal of the President to Governor John- 

son of California relating to anti-alien land tenure legis- 
lation. April 22, 1913 182 

v^ 4. Statement of Secretary Bryan with regard to Adminis- 
^ tration's plans for insuring international peace. April 24, 

1913 183 

5. Extract from a letter of Secretary Bryan to Governor 
Johnson of California relating to anti-alien land tenure 
legislation. May 11, 1913 184 



i 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

6. Extract from a communication of Secretary Bryan to the 

Japanese ambassador at Washington. May 19, 1913 , . 184 

7. Extract from a communication of Secretary Bryan to the 

Japanese ambassador at Washington. July 16, 1913 . . 187 

a^ 8. Address of the President to the Congress concerning rela- 
tions with the Republic of Mexico. August 27, 1913 . . 188 

9. Message of President Wilson to the citizens of the Philip- 
pine Islands. October 6, 1913 195 

10. Extract from an address of President Wilson to the stu- 

dents of Swarthmore College. October 25, 1913 . . . 196 

11. Extract from an address of President Wilson at the re- 

dedication of Congress Hall in Philadelphia. October 25, 
1913 197 

12. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Southern Commercial Congress at Mobile. October 27, 
1913 199 

/ 13. Extract from the annual message of the President to the 

Congress. December 2, 1913 203 

i 14. Statement of President Wilson with regard to the embargo 
on shipping military supplies into Mexico. February 3, 
1914 207 

*7- 15. Address of the President to the Congress concerning the 

Panama Canal Act. March 5, 1914 207 

16. Address of the President to the Congress concerning rela- 
tions with General Victoriano Huerta. April 20, 1914 . 209 

J 17. Communication of Secretary Bryan to the diplomatic repre- 
' sentatives of Argentina, Brazil and Chile at Washington. 

April 25, 1914 213 

Extract from an address of President Wilson at the Brook- 
lyn Navy Yard. May 11, 1914 215' 

Extract from an address of President Wilson at the unveil- 
ing of the statue of John Barry in Washington. May 16, 
1914 216 

Extract from an address of President Wilson at Philadel- 
phia. July 4, 1914 219 

Extract from a statement of President Wilson to the Amer- 
ican people concerning neutrality. August 18, 1914 . . 225 

22. Extract from the reply of the President to the protest of 
the German Emperor respecting violations of rules of 
warfare, September 16, 1914 227 

23. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 
American Bar Association at Washington. October 20, 
1914 228 



/ 



i 


18. 




19. 




20. 


X 


21. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

24. Extract from the annual message of the President to the 

Congress. December 8, 1914 230 

25. Extract from a communication of Secretary Bryan to Am- 

bassador W. H. Page. December 26, 1914 236 

26. Extract from an address of President Wilson at the Jack- 

son Day banquet in Indianapolis. January 8, 1915 . . 239 

22. Extract from a letter of Secretary Bryan to Senator Stone. 

January 20, 1915 240 

28. Extract from the message of the President to the Congress 

vetoing the immigration bill. January 28, 1915 .... 241 

29. Extract from a communication of Secretary Bryan to Am- 

bassador Gerard. February 10, 1915 243 

30. Extract from a communication of Secretary Bryan to Am- 

bassador W. H. Page. February 20, 1915 245 

31. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

conference of Methodist Protestant Church at Washing- 
ton. April 8, 1915 247 

22. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 
Daughters of the American Revolution, at Washington. 
April 19, 1915 248 

33. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Associated Press at New York, April 20, 1915 . . . 249 

34. Extract from a communication of Secretary Bryan to the 

German ambassador at Washington. April 21, 1915. . . 254 

35. Address of President Wilson before an audience of re- 

cently naturalized citizens at Philadelphia. May 10, 1915 256 

36. Communication of Secretary Bryan to Ambassador Gerard. 

May 13, 1915 261 

37. Extract from an address of President Wilson to the Atlan- 

tic fleet at New York. May 17, 1915 266 

38. Statement of President Wilson to the rival factions in 

Mexico. June 2, 1915 268 

39. Extract from a communication of acting Secretary Lansing 

to Ambassador Gerard. June 9, 1915 270 

Communication of Secretary Lansing to Ambassador 
Gerard. July 21, 1915 276 

Communication of Secretary Lansing and the representa- 
tives at Washington of six Latin American states to 
Mexican leaders. August 11, 1915 280 

42. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 
Grand Army of the Republic at Washington. September 
28. 1915 282 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

43. Extract from an address of President Wilson to the Civil- 

ian Advisory Board (Navy) at Washington. October 
6, 1915 282 

44. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Daughters of the American Revolution, at Washington. 
October 11, 1915 283 

, 45. Extract from a communication of Secretary Lansing to 

Ambassador W. H. Page. October 21, 1915 .... 286 

46. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Manhattan Club at New York. November 4, 1915 . . 287 

^ 47. Extract from the annual message of the President to Con- 
^ gress. December 7, 1915 293 

jiX 48. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 
' Second Pan-American Scientific Congress, at Washing- 
ton. January 6, 1916 300 

49. Extract from a communication of Secretary Lansing to 

the British ambassador at Washington. January 18, 
1916 302 

50. Extract from an address of President Wilson at Cleveland. 

January 29, 1916 306 

51. Extract from a letter of President Wilson to Senator Stone. 

February 24, 1916 309 

52. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Gridiron Club at Washington. February 26, 1916 . . 310 

J 53. Statement of President Wilson concerning sensational ru- 
mors on the Mexican border. March 25, 1916 . . . 312 

54. Extract from a memorandum by the Department of State 

on the status of armed merchantmen. March 25, 1916 . 314 

55. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Daughters of the American Revolution at Washington. 
April 17, 1916 315 

56. Extract from a communication of Secretary Lansing to 

Ambassador Gerard. April 18, 1916 316 

57. Extract from an address of the President to the Congress 

concerning the case of the Sussex. April 19, 1916 . . 321 

58. Extract from a communication of Secretary Lansing to 

Ambassador Gerard. May 8, 1916 322 

59. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

National Press Club at Washington. May 15, 1916 . . 324 

-f 60. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

League to Enforce Peace at Washington. May 27, 1916 325 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

6i. Extract from an address of President Wilson at Arlington 

National Cemetery. May 30, 1916 329 

62. Extract from an address of President Wilson at West 

Point. June 13, 1916 33^ 

63. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Associated Advertising Clubs at Philadelphia. June 29, 
1916 335 

64. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Press Club at New York. June 30, 1916 33^ 

65. Extract from an address of President Wilson at the dedi- 

cation of the American Federation of Labor Building in 
Washington. July 4, 1916 . 338 

66. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Worlds Salesmanship Congress at Detroit. July 10, 
1916 338 

67. Extract from an address of President Wilson, accepting 

the Democratic nomination for the presidency at Shadow 
Lawn. September 2, 1916 34^ 

68. Extract from an address of President Wilson, at the Lin- 

coln Memorial exercises, Hodgenville, Kentucky. Sep- 
tember 4, 1916 349 

69. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Grain Dealers' National Association, at Baltimore. Sep- 
tember 25, 1916 349 

70. Extract from an address of President Wilson at the Ne- 

braska Semi-Centennial Celebration in Omaha. October 

5, 1916 350 

71. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Commercial Club at Omaha. October 5, 1916. . . .351 

72. Extract from an address of President Wilson at Shadow 

Lawn. October 7, 1916 352 

73. Extract from an address of President Wilson at the Indiana 

Centennial in Indianapolis. October 12, 1916 . . . 352 

74. Extract from an address of President Wilson at Shadow 

Lawn. October 14, 1916 353 

75. Extract from an address of President Wilson at Shadow 

Lawn. October 16, 1916 354 

76. Extract from an address of President Wilson before the 

Women's .City Club at Cincinnati. October 26. 1916 . 355 

77. Extract from an address of President Wilson at Shadow 

Lawn. October 28. 1916 357 

78. Extract from an address of President Wilson at Shadow 

Lawn, November 4, 1916 357 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

79. Extract from a communication of Secretary Lansing to 

the United States representatives at the capitals of the 
belligerent powers. December 18, 1916 359 

80. Address of the President to the Senate concerning a league 

of nations. January 22, 1917 362 

81. Address of the President to the Congress concerning the 

severance of diplomatic relations with Germany. Febru- 
ary 3, 1917 370 

82. Extract from an address of the President to the Congress 

concerning the grant of power to arm merchant ships. 
February 26, 1917 375 

83. Extract from the second inaugural address of President 

Wilson at Washington. March 5, 1917 380 

84. Address of the President to the Congress concerning a 

declaration of war against Germany. April 2, 191 7 . . 382 

85. Extract from a statement of President Wilson to the 

people of the United States. April 15, 1917 .... 393 

86. Letter of President Wilson to Representative Heflin. May 

23, 1917 396 

87. Extract from an address of President Wilson at Arlington 

National Cemetery. May 30, 1917 397 

88. Extract from a communication of President Wilson to the 

government of Russia. June 9, 1917 398 

89. Address of President Wilson at Washington. June 14, 

1917 400 

90. Communication of Secretary Lansing to Pope Benedict XV. 

August 27, 1917 408 



N^ , Xv^Cf^^ 



PART I 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 



THE FOREIGN POLICY OF 
WOODROW WILSON 

1913-1917 

CHAPTER I 
Foundations 

New Forces in Control of the Government of the United 
States — Existing Problems in Foreign Relations — Previous 
Record of the Democratic Party — Attitude of the Xew Admin- 
istration — Relations with Latin-America -^ United States and 
China — Japanese in America — Policy of President Wilson 
upon the Problem of Government in Mexico — Dependencies of 
the United States — Peace Projects of the Wilson Administra- 
tion. 

WooDROvv Wilson did not refer to foreign policy in 
his first inaugural address. Although this silence was 
generally expected, it served to emphasize at the outset of 
a Democratic administration the domestic character of the 
interests and pledges of the Democratic party. Foreign 
policies had not been debated in the campaign for the 
presidency in 1912.^ Except for a veiled reference to a 

1 The Democratic party platform for 1912 had planks calling for 
an immediate declaration of American purpose respecting the inde- 
pendence of the Philippines, favouring an exemption from tolls of 
American coast-wise ships, and upholding the action of the Congress 
in a recent dispute with Russia, but none of these matters were in 
controversy and the Democ^tic victory brought none of them to 
the fore. 

3 



4 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

withdrawal from the Phihppines/ the president-elect in 
the interval prior to inauguration had given no indication 
of a program or a policy in respect to the relations of the 
government of the United States with the nations of the 
world. 

Yet there were not lacking persons who pointed out 
that the Democratic party and its leader were by record 
and word opposed to the tendency and much of the con- 
tent of the foreign policy pursued by the Republican ad- 
ministrations.^ Particularly was this true of the spirit of 
the Knox diplomacy and, had not the voters and political 
parties been absorbed in matters of domestic interest, it 
is certain that much would have been said of foreign 
policy, especially of '' dollar diplomacy," in the cam- 
paign of 1912.^ There had been expectation in certain 
quarters, both at home and abroad, that the coming of 
the new administration would mark especially a change 
in the attitude of the government of the United States 
in matters relating to the Central and South American 

1 President-elect Wilson had said in a public address on December 
28, 1912, "The Philippine Islands are at present our frontier, but 
I hope we presently are to deprive ourselves of that frontier." 
Chicago Record-Herald, December 29, 1912. 

2 Summary of expected changes may be found in " Will the Demo- 
crats Reverse our Foreign Policy?" American Review of Reviezvs, 
XLVII, 83 (January, 1913). 

2 The term " dollar diplomacy " was applied to the activities of 
Secretary Knox in securing opportunities for the investment of 
American capital abroad, particularly in Latin America and China. 
The policy was severely criticized not only by the Democratic 
party, but by a progressive element in the Republican party. See 
La Follette's Weekly, March 22, 1913 ; March 29, 1913. President 
Taft defended the policy of his Secretary in his message to Con- 
gress, December 3, 1912. Congressional Record, XLIX, 8. 



FOUNDATIONS 5 

republics. But whatever the anticipation, the pubHc was 
not to be long in doubt, for there were issues at hand to 
test at once the purpose of the incoming administration.^ 
Events in China and Mexico had been so shaping them- 
selves in 1912 as to bring forward problems for an imme- 
diate consideration on the part of the United States. The 
increasing strain in the relations with Colombia, a result 
of the part played by the United States in the Panama re- 
volt of 1903, demanded relief.^ The exemption, by the 
Panama Canal Act of 19 12, of American coast-wise 
shipping from the payment of tolls had called forth pro- 
tests from Great Britain which remained to be satisfied.^ 
To forestall any possibility of a rival canal it was 
necessary to bring to success the negotiations with 
Nicaragua for the control of the only other routes.'* 

1 For review of events in 1912, see P. S. Reinsch, "Diplomatic 
Affairs and International Law, 1912," American Political Science 
Reziexv, VH, 63 (February, 1913). 

2 The Taft administration had attempted to settle the contro- 
versy by proposing to purchase from Colombia certain privileges 
in that country and to award preferential treatment to its ships in 
the use of the Panama Canal. Colombia peremptorily refused to 
accept these proposals, February 15, 1913. 

2 The British government claimed that the provision of the Act 
of Congress, August 24, 1912, authorizing this exemption and deny- 
ing the use of the canal to ships owned by trans-continental rail- 
ways, violated the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. President Taft ex- 
pressed his willingness to submit the whole matter to arbitration, 
but the Department of State in its note of January 17, 1913, con- 
tended that there was neither violation of the treaty nor substantial 
injury to foreign shipping. The reply of the British ambassador 
was received February 27, 1913. 

* \ proposed treaty with Nicaragua, signed February 3, 1913, 
would have granted to the United States exclusive rights over 
Nicaraguan canal routes and for the establishment of a naval base. 
Before this treaty had been acted upon by the United States Sen- 



6 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

The Taft administration had refused to renew a com- 
mercial treaty with Russia, because of the discrimination 
by that government against American citizens of the 
Jewish race, and trade between the two nations depended 
on the mutual good will of the respective governments, 
until a new treaty should be arranged.^ 

Perhaps President Wilson had some of these matters in 
mind when he said in his inaugural address that the na- 
tion sought to use the Democratic party " to interpret a 
change in its own plans and point of view." But this is 
doubtful. He was at that time referring to such matters 
as tariff and currency, which he went on to discuss. It is 
significant, however, that before measures on either of 
these subjects had been launched in Congress, in fact be- 
fore the Congress had assembled in special session, the 
President had found it necessary to state the position of 
the administration upon certain matters of foreign policy 
in such terms as to show that there were, indeed, to be 
decided changes in the plans and point of view of the 
government of the United States in dealing with foreign 
nations. 

LATIN AMERICA 

Upon taking office President Wilson faced at once the 
question of recognition of General Victoriano Huerta, 

ate, it was withdrawn because amendments had been suggested which 
would have established a protectorate over Nicaragua. 

1 The treaty of commerce and navigation between the United 
States and Russia, ratified in 1832, expired January i, 1913. The 
Taft administration had notified the Russian government December 
17, 191 1, that it desired to terminate the treaty on its expiration. 



FOUNDATIONS 7 

who had become provisional president of Mexico thirteen 
days earlier. This marked the climax of a series of events 
in Mexico in 19 12 when that country had been the scene 
of the greatest disorder. Insurrection had broken out in 
many quarters and the ^Madero governrrient had been 
unable to cope with it. In this situation the Taft ad- 
ministration had followed a policy of non-interference. 
Citizens of the United States were warned to refrain 
from entering Mexico and from taking part in the dis- 
turbances there; those already in that country were 
urged to leave the danger areas; shipment of war ma- 
terials into Mexico was forbidden ; and the government 
of that state was informed that if American life and 
property within the boundaries of ^Mexico were not ade- 
quately protected the United States would be forced to 
intervene. But while troops were sent to the border 
no intervention had taken place in spite of the increasing 
uncertainties of life in Mexico. -In February of 1913 
President Madero was deposed and, while in the custody 
of Huerta's troops, was killed under circumstances that 
indicated a deliberate assassination. Huerta assumed a 
virtual dictatorship over the country, though under 
cover of legal right based on an election by the Mexican 
Congress. The American ambassador at Mexico City 
strongly advised the incoming administration to accord 
formal reco£:nition to the authoritv of Huerta. This 
President Wilson refused to do, thus departing from our 
usual practice.^ 

^ A similar case of non-recognition was that concerning Nic- 



8 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

His motive and purpose in this new departure were in- 
dicated when, on March ii, 1913, he issued a statement 
outlining his administration's attitude toward Latin 
America. (Statement No, J.)^ He declared that a 
chief object of his endeavour would be the cultivation of 
friendship with the republics of Central and South Amer- 
ica. He wished to deserve their confidence and to co- 
operate with them. However, it seemed to him that 
co-operation was possible ** only when supported at every 
turn by the orderly processes of just government based 
upon law, not upon arbitrary or irregular force." He 
promised to use every influence of the administration to 
the establishment of these principles. 

This marked definitely the stand of the administration 
upon the question of government in Mexico. But the 
President went on to say with general application to all 
Central and South American states that the favour of the 
administration was to be granted to " no special group or 
interest " in these countries. He was concerned with 
trade relationships between the two continents which 
should " redound to the profit and advantage of both and 
interfere with the rights and liberties of neither." 

As the first three paragraphs of this statement embod- 
ied the substance of his Mexican policy, so the last para- 
graph foreshadowed his Mobile speech in which he was to 
draw the line between " concessions " and " investments " 

aragua in 1855. See J. B. Moore, Digest of International Law, I, 
140. For instances of delayed recognition see ibid., 1 19-164. 

'^ Infra, p. 179. This and subsequent references in parentheses are 
to the numbered statements in Part III of this volume. 



FOUNDATIONS 9 

in Latin American countries. This was, however, as 
much of the poHcy of his government as he cared to fore- 
cast at that time. 

THE FAR EAST 

A week after his statement respecting his attitude to- 
ward Latin America the President was impelled to issue 
another statement, this time in response to a request by a 
group of American bankers that he signify the position of 
the administration upon their participation in a Six Power 
loan to China. ^ (Statement No. J.) Representatives of 
the banking houses concerned had called upon Secretary 
Bryan on March ninth and had stated explicitly that they 
would not participate unless expressly requested to do so 
by the administration.^ President Wilson declined to 
make such a request, disapproving of the conditions of 
the loan and consequently of the implied imposition of a 
responsibility upon the government of the United States. 
It might lead to an interference in the political affairs of 
China. Responsibility for such a possible result was 
" obnoxious to the principles upon which the government 
of our people rests." But the American people did wish 
to aid the people of China, particularly in view of their 

1 The participants were bankers of Great Britain, France, Ger- 
many, Japan, Russia and the United States. 

- An American group of bankers, consisting of J. P. Morgan & 
Co., Kuhn, Loeb & Co., First National Bank of New York City 
and National City Bank, had been formed in the spring of 1909, 
upon the request of the Department of State that a financial back- 
ing be given for participation by the United States in the railway 
loan agreement then under negotiation between China and groups 
of British, French and German bankers. 



10 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

recent awakening.^ Here also the United States was 
interested in trade relationships but, said he, *' our inter- 
ests are those of the open door — a door of friendship 
and mutual advantage. This is the only door we care to 
enter." ^ 

Within two weeks of taking office. President Wilson 
had made public the basic principles upon which he was to 
conduct relations of the United States with less powerful 
nations. Detailed programs developed in due time. The 
principles remained the same. He next was faced with 
the necessity of dealing with a diplomatic question involv- 
ing one of the Great Powers and touching upon matters 
within the boundaries of the United States. 

JAPANESE IN AMERICA 

On April 4, 191 3, the Japanese ambassador at Wash- 
ington called the attention of the Department of State to 
legislation pending in the California state legislature, the 
purport of which, he averred, was discrimination against 
the Japanese in the owning or leasing of lands. The 
proposed act did discriminate against aliens not eligible 
to citizenship, and in fact was designed to strike at the 
ownership of land by Japanese subjects. 

President Wilson attempted to prevent the development 
of a controversy with Japan by appealing to the California 

1 Revolution in China culminated on February 12, 1912. The Re- 
publican government of China was recognized by the United States 
on May 2, 1913. 

2 The official announcement of the withdrawal of the American 
group, issued March 19, 1913, may be found in Commercial and 
Financial Chronicle, XCVI, 825. 



FOUNDATIONS ii 

authorities, if they thought action necessary at all, to ex- 
clude from the privileges of land ownership all aliens 
who had not declared their intention to become citizens. 
{Statement No. j.) This was of course not the object 
of the proposed legislation nor would it meet the Japa- 
nese charge of discrimination. But it was state legisla- 
tion that the President thought should be such as could 
not be '' fairly challenged or called in question." His 
purpose was plainly to put the burden and responsibility 
upon the national government. 

A week following this appeal the President requested 
Secretary Bryan to go to California for a conference 
with the legislature and Governor Johnson. The mis- 
sion was not a success. On May third the legislature 
passed the bill without material change and Governor 
Johnson signed it on the nineteenth.^ 

In the interim between passage and the governor's 
action the Japanese ambassador, on May ninth, laid an 
'* urgent and explicit protest " before the Department of 
State, and this led the administration to dispatch a sec- 
ond appeal to Governor Johnson in which national re- 
sponsibility was again stressed and delay was requested 
that an attempt might be made to settle the matter 
through diplomatic channels. {Statement No. 5.) 
Governor Johnson's action made such effort impossible, 
but on the day of the signature the Department of State 

^California Statutes, (1913) p. 206. The law may be found also 
in J. H. Deering, General Lazes of California (1916 ed.), Act 129, 
p. 40, and in American Journal of International Lazv, VIII, Supple- 
ment, 177. 



12 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

made formal reply to the Japanese protest.^ (State- 
pient No. 6.) 

In stating its position the government of the United 
States admitted that beyond protesting it could do noth- 
ing to prevent legislative action by one of the states. It 
was pointed out, however, that the legislation in question 
was not political in the sense that it was part of any gen- 
eral national policy inconsistent with complete friendship 
between the two nations. It was asserted that it was 
wholly economic. The people of the State of California 
desired " to avoid certain conditions of competition in 
their agricultural activities." 

Secretary Bryan took pains to assure the Japanese gov- 
ernment that his government desired to further the under- 
standing that bound the nations together. Besides the 
attempts to induce California to modify its legislation 
there was other evidence of this desire. The Japanese 
government, in common with the other governments of 
the world, had before it at this time a plan for world 
peace laid before the diplomats at Washington by Secre- 
tary Bryan April 24, 1913.^ {Statement No. 4.) 

The Japanese ambassador informed the Secretary of 
State on June second that Japan accepted the plan ** in 
principle." Moreover, toward the close of the month the 

1 Diplomatic exchanges upon this subject may be found in De- 
partment of State, American-Japanese Discussions Relating to Land 
Tenure Law of California, 3-28. 

- It was announced by Secretary Bryan on May 30, 1913, that 
favourable responses had been received from Great Britain, France, 
Russia, Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Peru and Norway. An arbitration 
treaty with Great Britain was renewed on May 31, 1913. 



FOUNDATIONS 13 

general arbitration treaty between, the two countries was 
renewed.^ On June fourth, however, Japan presented a 
second formal note of protest against the California land 
legislation, to which Secretary Bryan replied on July six- 
teenth. (Statement A'o. J.) It was a reiteration and 
elaboration of the first reply. No more than in the first 
reply did the California attitude receive clear treatment. 
The Department of State put its emphasis upon the pur- 
pose and attitude of the national administration. It in- 
sisted that there was no question of discrimination on 
account of race, and also that the right to determine 
*' who shall and who shall not be permitted to settle in its 
dominions and become a part of the body politic " must 
necessarily be left to the municipal law of each nation to 
" avoid the contentions which are so likely to disturb the 
harmony of international relations." Japan was natu- 
rally not satisfied. A third protest was made on August 
twenty-sixth and a fourth late in September.^ 

The policy of the Wilson administration embodied two 
distinctions, the one drawn between economic and politi- 
cal legislation, the other between action by a state and the 
expression of the good will of the nation. Moreover, it 
maintained that there was no violation of a treaty right. 
If assurance of harmony of interests represented the con- 
tribution of the administration in this crisis, it was in 

^ This treaty of May 5, 1908, was one of a series of arbitration 
treaties negotiated during tlie secretaryship of EHhu Root. It would 
have expired August 24, 1913. The renewal was ratified by the 
Senate February 21, 1914, and ratifications exchanged May 22,, 1914. 

2 For subsequent discussion of Jai.anese protests see American 
Journal of International Law, Will, 571. 



14 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

keeping with the desire of those in charge to make the 
world one of peace and mutual agreement. But the 
Japanese protest, based fundamentally not upon the eco- 
nomic legislation of California, for that was an incident, 
but upon the discrimination against Japanese in the law 
of the United States, remained to be considered at a later 
time.-^ 

MEXICO 

For the time being the interest of the administration 
was centred elsewhere. On August 26, 191 3, the same 
day that Japan had presented its third protest, General 
Huerta, who was in power in Mexico City and whom 
President Wilson had refrained from recognizing, took 
steps that led the United States to consider more intently, 
than it thus far had, its relations with the Mexican people. 

Since the ninth of May Huerta had refused to recog- 
nize the American ambassador and on July sixteenth the 
latter was called to Washington for a conference. This 
was followed by his resignation. Early in August John 
Lind, former governor of Minnesota, was sent to Mexico 
City as the special agent of President Wilson.^ These 

^ There is no discrimination in terms in the statutes of the United 
States, but by judicial interpretation of the law it has been held that 
the Japanese, among other races, cannot be naturalized. See J. B. 
Moore, Digest of International Law, III, 331. In the spring of 
1917 in a paper before the American Academy of Political and So- 
cial Science Toyokichi lyenaga discussed relations between Japan 
and the United States and asked the full recognition of the equality 
of Japanese now resident in the United States, " Japan, America 
and Durable Peace," Annals of American Academy, LXXIT, 124. 

2 For basis for use of such agents and earlier instances of their 



FOUNDATIONS 15 

events emphasized the determination of the President not 
to recognize the government of Huerta. But he was of 
the opinion that the time had come when his policy of 
" hands off," announced in March, should give way to an 
offer to assist Mexico out of its difficulties. In making 
this change he was careful to emphasize the earlier assur- 
ance that the United States was acting in the spirit of dis- 
interested friendship. Reason for his change he stated 
thus, " The present situation in Mexico is incompatible 
with the fulfilment of international obligations on the 
part of Mexico, with the civilized development of Mexico 
herself, and with the maintenance of tolerable political 
and economic conditions in Central America." 

Through Mr. Lind he proposed the following terms of 
settlement: *'(a) An immediate cessation of fighting 
throughout Mexico, a definite armistice solemnly entered 
into and scrupulously observed, (b) Security given for 
an early and free election in which all will agree to take 
part, (c) The consent of General Huerta to bind him- 
self not to be a candidate for election as President of the 
Republic at this election, (d) The agreement of all 
parties to abide by the results of the election and co-op- 
erate in the most loyal way in organizing and supporting 
the new administration." General Huerta rejected these 
proposals on the sixteenth of August.^ 

Eleven days later the President addressed Congress. 

use see H. M. Wriston, " Presidential Special Agents in Diplomacy," 
A}nc)icaii Political Science Reziczv, X, 481. 

^ The reply of Huerta may be found in American Journal of In- 
ternational Law, VII, Supplement, 284. 



i6 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

{Statement No. 8.) It was his purpose in doing this to 
lay definitely before,the nation the principle and content 
of his policy in Mexico, and, if possible, to bring to his 
support a body of sentiment so considerable as to make 
it clear that the administration spoke the purpose of the 
nation. Then, as at later times, Mr. Wilson felt the 
necessity of restating for foreign peoples the point of 
view of the American people, as well as the policy of his 
own administration, and as a preliminary to this he made 
the effort to pronounce to his own people the make-up of 
his policy, in order that there might be understanding and 
decision at home. 

This was particularly necessary at this time inasmuch 
as the President was on the surface apparently preparing 
the United States to play in Mexico the role of " Big 
Policeman." ^ As the events proved and as his utter- 
ances had clearly foreshadowed, his purpose in this mat- 
ter and his conception of the aid of America was decid- 
edly not that ascribed to him at the time by the prominent 
leaders of public opinion, long accustomed to the ways 
and reasons of some of his immediate predecessors. 

It may be well to recall that on taking office in 19 13 
Mr. Wilson had not only to formulate a foreign policy, 
but, in view of the fact that the Democratic party had not 
been in power for the sixteen years during which the 

^ This phrase has been generally applied to a course of action 
pursued by President Roosevelt. It was stressed by him in his mes- 
sage to Congress on December 6, 1904. The European press so in- 
terpreted the course of President Wilson in Mexico; cited in Her- 
bert Kraus, " What European Countries Think of the Monroe Doc- 
trine," Annals of American Academy, LIV, no. 



FOUNDATIONS 17 

United States had become a " world power," he had the 
much greater task of interpreting that pohcy to the 
American people and relating it to the problems with 
which he had to deal.^ ]Mr. Wilson accepted this task 
with a deep sense of responsibility. It is probably not 
too much to say that in expounding the principles of an 
American policy to the American people he made a great, 
if not the greatest, contribution to the preparation of 
America for participation in the Great War. 

His appeal of August twenty-seventh should be consid- 
ered with this task in mind. He spoke of the obligation 
of the United States government in the protection of 
American interests, but he put first the " obligation to 
Mexico herself." American friendship for the Mexican 
people should be such as to lead to willing sacrifices in 
their time of trouble. By sacrifice he apparently meant 
the curtailment of American interests for the time being. 
In this he was emphasizing his position of March elev- 
enth. The reasons why the United States should be so 
concerned with *' the peace, prosperity, and contentment 
of Mexico " were to be found less in the enlargement 
thereby of the field for American business than in the 
'* enlargement of the field of self-government and the 
realization of the hopes and rights of a nation . . . 
whose best aspirations " had been *' so long suppressed 
and disappointed." 

In view of the apparent inability of Huerta to re- 

^ Relations with Colombia, England, Japan and Mexico called for 
immediate attention. 



i8 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

store order, or of his opponents to gain control, the 
President believed that it was the duty of the United 
States to volunteer to assist, if that were possible, *' in 
effecting some arrangement which would bring relief 
and peace and set up a universally acknowledged political 
authority " in Mexico. It was to aid in the accomplish- 
ment of this end that Mr. Lind had been sent to Mexico 
City. 

The failure of Mr. Lind to secure the retirement of 
Huerta had led the President to make this statement to 
Congress. He concluded with the following announce- 
ment of his future course, — an announcement that con- 
tains the spirit of the Wilson diplomatic policy through- 
out his term and upon all questions : '' Clearly, every- 
thing that we do must be rooted in patience and done with 
calm and disinterested deliberation. . . . We can afford 
to exercise the self-restraint of a really great nation 
w^hich realizes its own strength and scorns to misuse 
it." 

There the matter rested, as far as the administration 
was concerned, for some time. In mid-October the 
Washington government found it expedient to send warn- 
ings to Huerta, and he was given to understand that the 
United States had no intention of recognizing his claim 
to the presidency even though the elections then in prog- 
ress should result in his favour. The elections held 
under the Huerta regime were not the orderly processes 
of constitutional government which President Wilson 
found an essential to the restoration of normal conditions. 



FOUNDATIONS 19 

DEPENDENCIES 

During the seven months in which President Wilson 
had been placing before the country his conception of 
foreign policy, there had been some speculation as to his 
probable procedure with relation to the Philippines. The 
Democratic party had given consideration to this matter 
in its platforms since 1900,^ and the platform of 19 12 
had favoured an immediate declaration of the nation's 
purpose to recognize the independence of the islands as 
soon as a stable government could be established. No 
certain statement was given of the President's views until 
October 6, 19 13, when the newly-appointed Governor- 
General delivered a message from the President to the 
citizens of the Philippine Islands. {Statement No. p.) 
Here, as in other cases, the President put his faith in self- 
government, and stated his intention to make it possible 
wherever his action might be of aid.^ 

He summed up his faith in addressing an audience at 
Swarthmore College later in October when he said, 
-'*. . . the mere extent of the American conquest is not 
what gives America distinction in the annals of the world, 
but the professed purpose of the conquest which was to 
see to it that every foot of this land should be the home 

1 Platforms of the Democratic party can be conveniently found in 
E. Stanwood, History of the Presidency, II (1897-1916) second edi- 
tion. Platforms, 1900, pp. 58-C13 ; 1901, pp. 1 19-124; 1908, pp. 186- 
196; 1912, pp. 260-271 ; 1916, pp. 350-360. 

2 The address of Governor General Harrison in presenting this 
message was published in the Weekly Times (Manila, P. I.) Octo- 
ber 10, 1913. 



20 DEVELOrMENT OF THE POLICY 

of free, self-governed people, who shouKl have no gov- 
ernment whatever which tlid not rest upon the consent of 
the governed.'' {Statement No. lo.) 

At this time Air. Wilson was apparently conscious 
of a need to make this point increasingly clear to his 
own countrymen. At Philadelphia in Octoher he said 
that he had asked himself this question, ** How are you 
going to assist in some small part to give the American 
people and, by example, the peoples of the world more 
liberty, more happiness, more substantial prosperity ; and 
how are you going to make that prosperity a common 
heritage instead of a selfish possession?" {Statement 
No. II.) 

GENERAL rOLICV 

But the full meaning of his thought with reference 
to his own foreign policy did not become absolutely clear 
until he made his address to the Southern Commercial 
Congress at Mobile on October 2y, 191 3. (Statement 
No. /-'.) The address was carefully prepared and after 
the inaugural address deserves to rank first of all his 
utterances during the first year of his presidency. 

He pointed out the dangers involved in the '' conces- 
sions " obtained by foreign companies in South and Cen- 
tral America.^ He predicted that in time " concessions " 
would be displaced by investments. With pride he 
pointed to action by his administration in speeding this 

^ These were the dangers referred to by him on March 18, 1913, 
in discussing the proposed six-power loan to China. 



FOUNDATIONS 21 

change.-^ *' It is a very perilous thing to determine the 
foreign policy of a nation in terms of material interest. 
It not only is unfair to those with whom you are dealing, 
but it is degrading as regards your own actions." Even 
while speaking such sentiments the President must have 
felt the possibility of a distinction between his ideal and 
the actions of his country in the past. He turned aside 
to say '* that the United States will never again seek one 
additional foot of territory by conquest." 

But there was a deeper meaning in the President's out- 
look upon the future of Latin America. He was striving 
to emphasize the need of equity in the relations between 
nations in order that international disputes might be 
avoided or readily settled. " Comprehension," said he, 
" must be the soil in which shall grow all the fruits of 
friendship, and there is a reason and a compulsion lying 
behind all this which is dearer than anything else to 
thoughtful men of America. I mean the development of 
constitutional liberty in the world. Human rights, na- 
tional integrity, and opportunity as against material in- 
terests — that ... is the issue. . . ." President Wil- 
son was in this address directing his thought to the Amer- 
icas. But it is of significance that he proposed a course 
of action and enunciated a group of principles which 
three years later he wished to apply to the conduct of the 
United States in the world at large. 

* It may be that the President was referring to the withdrawal of 
the Pearson syndicate from its proposed investment in Colombia. 



22 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

INTERNATIONAL PEACE 

""From the outset the administration had been credited 
with a desire to further projects for insuring interna- 
tional peace. During the previous administration the 
sentiment for arbitration had made progress under the 
leadership of President Taft. President Wilson fa- 
voured arbitration, but his administration went a step 
further. As a means of arresting the development of 
controversies, and thus of avoiding the necessity of arbi- 
tration or war, a plan was proposed for preliminary in- 
quiry into the causes of dispute. In his address to Con- 
gress in December of 19 13 the President related the 
success of this effort. {Statement No. ij.) In April 
of 19 1 3 Secretary Bryan had presented to the diplomats 
at Washington a plan providing " that whenever differ- 
ences of interest or of policy arise that could not be re- 
solved by the ordinary processes of diplomacy they shall 
be publicly analyzed, discussed, and reported upon by a 
tribunal chosen by the parties before either nation deter- 
mines its course of action." In the ensuing eight months 
assent, in principle, had been gained from thirty-one 
governments representing four-fifths of the population of 
the world. Thus the President found " many happy 
manifestations ... of a growing cordiality and sense 
of community of interest among the nations, foreshadow- 
ing an age of settled peace and good will." 

Pending controversies with England, Russia, Japan 
and Colombia were not mentioned in this message. But 



FOUNDATIONS 23 

the attitude of the administration toward the settlement 
of these disputes was foreshadowed thus : " There is 
only one possible standard by which to determine contro- 
versies between the United States and other nations, and 
that is compounded of these two elements: Our own 
honor and our obligations to the peace of the world. A 
test so compounded ought easily to be made to govern 
both the establishment of new treaty obligations and the 
interpretation of those already assumed." 

The foundations for the foreign policy of the admin- 
istration of Woodrow Wilson had been firmly laid before 
the expiration of the year. In Latin America, particu- 
larly in Mexico, and in the Far East, particularly in 
China, fair dealing involving a refusal to countenance 
the extension of the financial interests of the United 
States at the expense of peoples less advanced indus- 
trially, friendly co-operation embodied in a moral sup- 
port of the forces of law and order and a reliance upon 
the universal principle of self-government, — these had 
characterized the action of the government at Wash- 
ington. In controversies, notably in that with Japan, 
guidance had been found in the reasonableness of deciding 
disputed questions by orderly processes, and in the im- 
portance of deliberation and patience and mutual under- 
standing. At all times emphasis had been placed upon 
the spirit of the people of the United States rather 
than upon their might as a nation. 



CHAPTER II 
Principles in Practice 

Pre-eminent Importance of the Mexican Question — Develop- 
ment of the Policy of the Administration — President Wilson's 
Treatment of the Panama Tolls Controversy — Inviolability of 
Treaties — Crisis in the Relations with Huerta — Mediation by 
the ''A. B. C." Powers — Triumph of the President's Policies. 

Mexico demanded of the administration increasing 
attention. In the midst of what the President some three 
years later called " this perplexing business," it was re- 
peatedly asserted, and tlie statement met with general 
acceptance, that however much the American people re- 
joiced in the fact that the administration had not inter- 
vened in Mexico, a great portion did not understand the 
policy of the President and were frequently baffled by 
the changes in that policy. In its development the policy 
of the administration by the opening of 19 14 had passed 
through two stages. In the first the President had 
merely refused to recognize the government of Huerta, 
in the second, signalized by the mission of Lind, he had 
tendered the good offices of the United States in an effort 
to bring the warring factions together. In spite of the 
rejection by Huerta of this proffered aid, the President's 
personal representative had remained in Mexico and 

24 



PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE 25 

the President had maintained an attitude of " watchful 
waiting." 

He felt that peace in America was not assured until a 
constitutional government had been established in Mex- 
ico, and he held that an elimination of those who exer- 
cised arbitrary and illegal power must necessarily precede 
the formation of a permanent concert of power for the 
Americas. The United States was particularly on trial 
in this matter partly because of its course toward Mexico 
in earlier years and partly because its predominant size 
in the Americas naturally engendered the suspicion of 
possible aggression. Consequently the President wished 
to emphasize the peculiar burden of responsibility resting 
upon the United States. 

In his message to Congress in December of 19 13 he 
said, " We are the friends of constitutional government 
in America; we are more than its friends, we are its 
champions ; because in no other way can our neighbors 
to whom we would wish in every way to make proof of 
our friendship, work out their own development in peace 
and liberty." ^ Plis meaning here was subject to two 
possible interpretations. Championship might imply 
merely continued refusal to recognize Huerta or it might 
mean adoption of measures of some sort to hasten the 
downfall of any who exercised arbitrary authority. Late 
in January of 1914 the President took a step that marked 
entrance upon the third stage in the development of his 

^ In this messap:e greater powers in self-government were asked 
for Porto Rico and Hawaii and ultimate independence for the Philip- 
pines was stressed. 



26 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

policy. He made known to the members of the Senate 
Committee on Foreign Relations that he intended to raise 
the embargo on the shipment of arms into Mexico.^ 

In his explanation of February 3, 1914, there is a frank 
statement of the reasons for the use of this weapon 
against Huerta. (Statement No. 14.) This was cham- 
pionship of those who were waging war for a constitu- 
tional government. Said the President : '' The execu- 
tive order under which the exportation of arms and am- 
munition into Mexico is forbidden was a departure from 
the accepted practices of neutrality — a deliberate de- 
parture from those practices under a well-considered 
joint resolution of Congress, determined in circumstances 
w^hich have now ceased to exist.^ It was intended to dis- 
courage incipient revolts against the regularly constituted 
authorities of Alexico. Since that order was issued the 
circumstances of the case have undergone a radical 
chang:e. There is now no Constitutional Government in 
Mexico; and the existence of this order hindens and de- 
lays the very thing that the Government of the United 
States is now insisting upon, namely, that Mexico shall 
be left free to settle her own affairs and as soon as pos- 
sible put them on a constitutional footing by her own 
force and counsel." Critics of the President pointed out 
that this order would result in arming those whom the 

1 On January 2, 1914, the President had conferred with John Lind, 
his personal representative in Mexico. 

2 The order of Taft of March 14, 1912, had forbidden all export 
except to the government of Madero. The order of Wilson in 1913 
had made no exception. 



PRINXIPLES IN PRACTICE 27 

United States must eventually fight when it intervened, 
but unlike these critics the President had no intention, 
then or at a later time, of intervening.^ 

But the new determination of the President did seem 
to actually project the United States into ]\Iexico's do- 
mestic troubles.^ Moreover, it divided the responsibility 
for what happened in Mexico between the Huertistas and 
the Constitutionalist faction; though General Carranza, 
the leader of that party, refused to assume this burden. 
There were indications of some disposition on the part of 
the world at large to hold the United States itself in some 
measure responsible for acts of violence directed at for- 
eigners in Mexico. In February Great Britain requested 
that the Washington government investigate the death of 
a British subject, whose killing, it was charged, had been 
at the hands of troops of the party of Carranza. The 
United States accepted tlie responsibility, but on account 
of strained relations with Carranza its efforts were not 
an unqualified success. 

Mr. Wilson felt called upon to discuss the rumour of 
European interference on March 2, 19 14, and to deny 
.that any pressure had been brought to bear upon the 

^ There was widespread demand for change in policy toward 
Mexico in the late winter. See particularly W. M. Shuster, " The 
Mexican Menace," Century Magazine, LXXXVII, 593 (February. 
1914,) and G. Harvey, "We Appeal to the President," North Amer- 
ican Reviciv, CXCIX, 481 (April, 1914). 

' Comment at this time was aroused by two other acts of the ad- 
ministration. Late in January United States marines were landed 
in Haiti to aid in maintenance of order. On February 12, 1914, 
formal recognition was given a government recently established in 
Peru. 



28 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

United States government by other governments.^ That 
this denial may have been accompanied by a mental reser- 
vation is to be inferred from an occurrence on the fol- 
lowing day in the British House of Commons, when Sir 
Edward Grey announced that if the British government 
did not obtain satisfaction from the Constitutionalists 
through the good offices of the United States it reserved 
the right to obtain reparation by other means when the 
circumstances should permit. 

PANAMA TOLLS 

In the meantime other matters were causing concern 
to the administration. As has been pointed out above, 
controversies were pending with several governments, 
and in his conference with the Senate Committee on 
Foreign Relations in January the President took the oc- 
casion to point out the gravity of the international situa- 
tion. 

Of the questions before him the President decided first 
of all to take up the contention of Great Britain that tie 
exemption of American coastwise ships from the payment 
of tolls at Panama was a violation of the treaty of 190^-"^^ 
between the United States and Great Britain. The 
Democratic platform of 191 2 had favoured this exemp- 
tion and there were Democratic majorities in both the 
Senate and the House of Representatives. Notwith- 
standing these facts the President on March 5, 19 14, 

1 From a stenographic report of a talk of the President on March 
2, 1914. Published in IVorld's Work, XXVIII, 485-7. 



PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE 29 

read a message to the Congress in which he asked the 
repeal of the provision of the act that made the exemp- 
tion.^ (Statement No. ij.) In doing so he laid em- 
phasis on the fact that opinion outside of the United 
States was united in holding that the exemption was 
contrary to the treaty rights of Great Britain.- The 
President's belief was thus expressed, '' we are too 
big, too powerful, too self-respecting a Nation to inter- 
pret with too strained or refined a reading the words of 
our own promises just because we have power enough to 
give us leave to read them as we please." 

He closed his address with an appeal that caused great 
speculation and endless explanation. ** I ask this of you 
in support of the foreign policy of the administration. I 
shall not know how to deal with other matters of even 
greater delicacy and nearer consequence if you do not 
grant it to me in ungrudging measure." This was widely 
interpreted to indicate pressure from Great Britain with 
regard to Mexico. The President denied this in a subse- 
quent talk with the newspaper men. In answer to ques- 
tioning he stated that there was no particular significance 
to be attached to the words '' nearer consequence." He 
regarded it as essential, however, that confidence be 
strengthened in the pledged word of the United States, if 
the policy of conciliation and co-operation, in which the 

1 The proposed repeal applied to the clause that provided, " No 
tolls shall be levied upon vessels engaged in coastwise trade of the 
United States." Umted States Statutes at Large, XXXVII, 562. 

2 For compilation of foreign press comment see Literary Digest, 
XLV, 362-3. 



30 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

administration had been interested from the beginning, 
was to make headway in Latin America.^ Before Con- 
gress had indicated decisively its reaction to this proposal 
all attention was taken by startling events in Mexico. 



MEXICO 

Time had seemed to work no improvement there. As 
the spring approached the President insisted, in the face 
of an increasing storm of criticism, that the United 
States could afford to wait for the desired outcome.^ 
Haste upon the part of the United States could not but 
lead to bloodshed. Caution and patience might make 
it unnecessary. 

-However, on the third of April the personal representa- 
tive of the President left Vera Cruz for the United States, 
serving by this departure to emphasize the failure of his 
mission, undertaken in August of 1913.''^ Whether the 
President was at this time contemplating a new departure 
in dealing with the situation in Mexico cannot now be 
determined. Nor is it important. For events at this 

1 IVorld's Work, XXVIII, 490-491. 

2 A compilation of adverse press comment from Europe and Latin 
America as well as the United States may be found in North Amer- 
ican Reziew, CXCIX, 481 (April, 1914). 

3 Simultaneously another Latin American problem was before the 
administration. On April 8, 1914, a treaty between the United 
States and Colombia was signed at Bogota. This had been antici- 
pated by President Restrepo of Colombia. See Times (London). 
September 30, 1913. In a letter to the New York Times, published 
July 20. 1913. Ex-minister J. T. DuBois had stated that his mission 
had been handicapped because Colombia desired to await the action 
of the new administration at Washington. 



PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE 31 

point forced him to abandon, for the time being, the pur- 
suance of his pohcy. 

On April 9, 19 14, a United States paymaster and a 
boat's crew of nine were arrested at Tampico by an officer 
of the army of General Huerta. By the order of a su- 
perior officer they were released immediately and the 
American commander was tendered an apology, which 
was later supplemented by an expression of regret from 
Huerta. Rear- Admiral H. T. Mayo, in command of the 
fleet, did not rei^ard these as meeting the requirements of 
the situation and demanded a formal apology, assurance 
that the officer would be severely punished, and finally 
that a salute of twenty-one guns be given the United 
States flag, the flag to be raised publicly by the saluting 
party. All this was to be done within twenty-four hours. 

The President supported these demands, although the 
time limit was extended, inasmuch as the issue was now 
widened to include the personal responsibility of Huerta. 
In replying the representative of Huerta urged the exist- 
ence of extenuating circumstances, and stressed the 
immediate release and apologv'. Upon the American 
refusal to consider this, Huerta agreed to the original 
demand, with qualifications, however, which the United 
States would not accept. 

Mr. Lind arrived in Washington on the thirteenth, and 
the following day had conference with the President 
and Secretary Bryan. On the same day Nelson 
O'Shaughnessy, the American charge at Mexico City, 
was informed of the final refusal of Huerta to submit to 



32 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

what he termed a degradation of the sovereignty of 
Mexico. The President ordered the North Atlantic fleet 
to the east coast of Mexico, and on the fifteenth a simi- 
lar movement of a Pacific fleet to the west coast. He 
explained in a conference with the committees of Con- 
gress that it was his intention to seize the ports of 
Tampico and Vera Cruz on the east coast and some of 
the ports on the west coast as well, and to establish by 
such means a pacific blockade of Mexico.^ Thus in- 
dicating a determination to force acquiescence, President 
Wilson on the eighteenth sent to General Huerta an 
ultimatum. Huerta refused to accede and it became 
known that the President would present the matter be- 
fore Congress. 

In a talk to the newspaper men at Washington, appar- 
ently after his order of the fourteenth but before he ap- 
peared before Congress, Wilson stated that neither the 
seizure of custom houses nor the giving of passports need 
lead to war, and that the purpose of the naval operations 
in Mexican waters was not, as some seemed to think, the 
*' elimination of Huerta." He was careful to dissociate 
the act to enforce respect for the United States from his 
acts that had as their aim the establishment of a stable 
government in Mexico. Moreover, the country was talk- 
ing little but war, while the President talked of display 
of force. The purpose of the President was *' to compel 

1 The White House issued a statement upon April 15, 1914, in 
which it was pointed out that the United States had been singled 
out for attention by forces of Huerta and that the Tampico incident 
was one of a series. New York Times, April 16, 1914. 



PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE 33 

the recognition of the dignity of the United States." ^ 
Further emphasis of this appeared when the President 
addressed Congress on the twentieth. (Statement No. 
16.) He was aware that the Tampico incident taken by 
itself might be considered insufficient ground for such 
drastic measures, but *' unfortunately, it was not an iso- 
lated case. A series of incidents have recently occurred," 
he said, " which can not but create the impression that the 
representatives of General Huerta were willing to go out 
of their way to show disregard for the dignity and rights 
of this Government and felt perfectly safe in doing what 
they pleased, making free to show in many ways their 
irritation and contempt." The President in justifying 
his demand upon Huerta stated as his opinion that only 
a public salute and apology would impress the whole 
Mexican population with the importance of the incident. 
War was not his plan. Indeed he hoped by the course 
he was about to pursue to avoid that very outcome. If 
the situation were dealt with '' promptly, firmly, and 
wisely " it '* need have none of the grave implications of 
interference." He asked the approval of Congress to use 
the armed forces of the United States in such ways and 
to such an extent as might be necessary to obtain from 
Huerta and his adherents the fullest recognition of the 
rights and dignity of the United States. This power the 
Congress voted two days later, following the President's 

1 World's Work, XXVIII, 490. See also, article by Samuel 
Blythe, " Mexico : The Record of a Conversation with President 
Wilson," published in Saturday Evening Post, May 23, 1914, and re- 
printed in Congressional Record, LI, 9095. 



34 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

lead in disclaiming any intention of making war upon the 
Mexican people. 

The President had moved even prior to this vote of 
confidence. The custom house at Vera Cruz was taken 
by American marines on the twenty-first of April and a 
day later the occupation of Vera Cruz was complete. 
This move aroused the Constitutionalists. General Car- 
ranza came forward to protest at this invasion of Mexi- 
can soil, maintaining that the demand for a salute should 
have been made to him as the lawful representative of 
the Mexican people. To forestall difficulties that might 
follow the insistence on such a view, President Wilson 
restored the embargo on the shipment of arms into Mex- 
ico, and by this act further aroused the fears of Mexican 
leaders as to the purpose of the United States. 

MEDIATION BY THE " A. B. C." POWERS 

Before the occupation of the other ports was under- 
taken, indeed before the army had replaced the marines at 
Vera Cruz, President Wilson took a step which caused 
widespread astonishment both at home and abroad but 
which, in retrospect at least, seems perfectly natural in 
view of his previous utterances upon Latin American af- 
fairs and the attitude of the administration upon matters 
of arbitration. On April twenty-fifth the diplomatic rep- 
resentatives at Washington of three Latin American gov- 
ernments, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, had tendered their 
good offices in this emergency. In its acceptance, given 
on the same day (Statement No. 17), the United States 



PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE 35 

Department of State set forth again in the following 
terms the fundamental principles of the administration's 
Latin American policy : " Conscious of the purpose 
with which the proffer is made, this Government does not 
feel at liberty to decline it. Its own chief interest is in the 
peace of America, the cordial intercourse of her republics 
and their people, and the happiness and prosperity that 
can spring only out of franlj: mutual understandinojs and 
the friendship which is created by common purpose. 

" The generous offer of your Governments is there- 
fore accepted. This Government hopes most earnestly 
that you may find those who speak for the several ele- 
ments of the Mexican people willing and ready to discuss 
terms of satisfactory, and therefore permanent, settle- 
ment. If you should find them willing, this Govern- 
ment will be glad to take up with you for, discussion in 
the frankest and most conciHatory spirit any proposals 
that may be authoritatively formulated, and will hope 
that they may prove feasible and prophetic of a new day 
of mutual co-operation and confidence in America." 

A great vakie in such a conference lay in its eft'ect upon 
public opinion, not only in Latin America, but also in the 
United States. Mediation had been obtained — seem- 
ingly at the expense yet with the assent of the United 
States. The act stood for progress. Moreover, the in- 
clusion of the whole Mexican situation in the scope of the 
proposed conference meant that an object long desired 
was now attained. There was finally to be a conference 
of the more important American republics upon the res- 



36 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

toration of order in Mexico. Both lluerta and Car- 
ranza had accepted the proposal before the month was 
out. As a result of the policy pursued by the adminis- 
tration at Washington a purely national line of conduct 
was superseded by a somewhat limited, yet deeply signifi- 
cant, international program for dealing with problems 
arising out of unstal)le government in a backward prov- 
ince of the New World. 

GENERAL POLICY 

Prior to the meeting of the conference of mediators 
President Wilson availed himself of two opportunities to 
drive home to the American people the purport of these 
recent movements. On May twelfth he said: "We 
have gone down to Mexico to serve mankind, if we can 
find out the way. We do not want to light the Mexicans. 
We want to serve the Mexicans, if we can, because we 
know how we would like to be free and how we would 
like to Ixi served if there were friends standing by ready 
to serve us. A war of aggression is not a war in which 
it is a proud thing to die, but a war of service is a thing 
in which it is a proud thing to die." (Statement No. iS.) 
The President referred to the number of national stocks 
represented among those Americans who were killed in the 
taking of Vera Cruz, and said : '' They were Americans, 
every one of them, and with no difference in their Ameri- 
canism because of the stock from which they came. 
Therefore, they were in a i)eculiar sense of cnir blood, and 
they proved it by showing that they were of our spirit. 



PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE 37 

that no matter what their derivation, no matter where 
their people came from, they thought and wished and did 
the things that were American ; and the flag under which 
they served was a flag in which all the blood of man- 
kind is united to make a free Nation." These phrases 
are the common currency of American public addresses, 
but Woodrow Wilson by his earnestness and purpose ful- 
ness was to give them a new and greater moral value. 

Seizing upon the moment when his policy of concilia- 
tion in Latin America had seemed about to give way, and 
a more rigid and accustomed policy of coercion to be his 
only alternative, he had emphasized in a most dramatic 
way the possibilities of a wider use of co-operation now 
that the faith of the greater South American countries 
had been won by his conduct in oflice. 

Perhaps the most telling criticism, from the point of 
view of a great many citizens of the United States, lev- 
elled at this latest development in the administration's 
policy, was that it obligated the United States to other 
nations and that its conduct thereafter must be bound as 
never before in foreign relations. It was pointed out 
that this was contrary to previous conduct and purpose 
of the United States. In meeting such objections the 
President said : " It was not merely because of passing 
and transient circumstances that Washington said that we 
must keep free from entangling alliances. It was because 
he saw that no country had yet set its face in the same 
direction in which America had set her face. We cannot 
form alliances with those who are not going our way; 



38 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

and in our might and majesty and in the confidence and 
definiteness of our own purpose we need not and we 
should not form alHances with any nation in the w(jrld." 
(Statement No. /p.) 

The conference of mediation convened at Niagara l^^alls 
on May twentieth and remained in session for six weeks. 
During that period the President triumphed in his light 
for the repeal of the tolls exemption clause of the Panama 
Canal Act, and thus settled that controversy with Great 
Pritain.' 'J'he issue with Japan remained to be met, and 
on the tenth of June the Japanese ambassador filed an ad- 
ditional protest with the Department of State. 

On June 30, KJ14, the Niagara brails conference ad- 
journed without arriving at a satisfactory result. ~ The 
ac(|uiescence uf the United States in the arbitration of a 
point (jf honour had come t(j no certain result, and how- 
ever much it may have enhanced the reputation <jf the 
administration in Latin America, the Mexican situation 
was (|uite as luisettled as e\er. At least so it seemed un 
the surface. The President's Mexican p(jlicy stood con- 
victed of utter failure in the minds of many of his coun- 
trymen, particularly among those who are usually re- 
garded as speaking with authority upon matters of inter- 
national relations and foreign policy. 

President Wilson devoted his next public address to a 
consideration of foreign policy in its larger aspects. 

lAct signed June 15, 1914. United States Statutes at Larue, 
XXXVIII, ,]Hs. 

- I'rolocol sigiifd June j.j, i(ji4. l-or articles of agreement see 
American Journal of International Law, VIII, 584. 



PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE 39 

(Statement No. 20.) He again raised this question 
which he had raised at Philadelphia nearly a year earlier : 
" What are we going to do with the influence and power 
of this great nation? Are we going to play the old role 
of using that power for our aggrandizement and material 
benefit only? You know what that may mean. It may 
upon occasion mean that we shall use it to make the peo- 
ples of other nations suffer in the way in which we said 
that it was intolerable to suffer when we uttered our 
Declaration of Independence." In refraining from de- 
bating the details of the situation of the moment, Mr. 
Wilson cut back to the basis of self-government, his usual 
starting point. 

He continued : ** We set this Nation up — at any rate 
we professed to set it up — to vindicate the rights of men. 
We did not name any differences between one race and 
another. We did not set up any barriers against any par- 
ticular people." Was this a veiled reference to the recent 
difference with Japan? Did it contain an admonition for 
a policy in the Philippines? Was it a reference to his 
views upon proposals for the restriction of immigration? 
It made little difference. The purpose and the principle 
of the President were the same. , 

The entire address was charged with what had been 
repeatedly termed the impossible idealism of the Presi- 
dent. " If I did not believe," he said, '' that the moral 
judgment would be the last judgment, the final judgment, 
in the minds of men as well as at the tribunal of God, I 
could not believe in popular government. But I do be- 



40 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

lieve these things, and therefore I earnestly believe in the 
democracy not only of America but of every awakened 
people that wishes and intends to govern and control its 
own affairs." 

The closing paragraph of the address shows clearly 
why in times of greater trial the President came quite 
naturally to voice the idealism of the nation : *' My 
dream is that as the years go on and the world knows 
more and more of America, it . . . will turn to America 
for those moral inspirations which lie at the basis of 
all freedom ; that the world will never fear America un- 
less it feels that it is engaged in some enterprise which is 
inconsistent with the rights of humanity; and that Amer- 
ica will come into the full light of the day when all shall 
know that she puts human rights above all other rights, 
and that her flag is the flag not only of America, but of 
humanity. What other great people has devoted itself 
to this exalted ideal ? To what other nation in the world 
can all eyes look for an instant sympathy that thrills the 
whole body politic when men anywhere are fighting for 
their rights? I do not know that there will ever be a 
declaration of independence and of grievances for man- 
kind, but I believe that if any such document is ever 
drawn it will be drawn in the spirit of the American 
Declaration of Independence, and that America has lifted 
high the light which will, shine, unto all generations and 
guide the feet of mankind to the goal of justice and lib- 
erty and peace." 



PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE 41 

The day following this address Huerta was elected 
President of Mexico. But it was the end. He resigned 
on July fifteenth and five days later fled from Mexico. 
Critics of the administration now asserted that the re- 
fusal of the President to recognize Huerta had pulled 
down the only strong power in Mexico. They reiterated 
the belief in the responsibility of the United States to 
force its conception of order upon its less powerful neigh- 
bours. But to other commentators the retirement of 
Huerta signalized a triumph for the policy of idealism, 
that is, the course of the administration in refusing to 
intervene in Mexico. The Wilson practice in Mexico had 
been to insist upon order as a necessary element for mem- 
bership in the group of states, but to permit the ]Mexican 
people to achieve their own victory against the elements 
of disorder within the state. ^ The larger significance of 
the success of the administration's program in Latin 
America, and in Mexico in particular, was still unsus- 
pected. 

The triumph of the Wilson program, as far as it related 
to the growth of friendly relations, was signalized late in 
July when treaties providing for arbitration were signed 
with the three South American governments with whom 
the United States had recently been acting. On the fif- 
teenth of September an order was issued for the with- 
drawal of troops from Vera Cruz, and the troops were 
withdrawn on the twenty-third of November. The hon- 

1 See editorials "Exit Huerta" and "Again the Big Policeman," 
The Nation (New York), XCIX, 91. 



42 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

our of the United States had not been vindicated, that 
is, if a salute to the flag was the test, but Huerta had 
gone from power. A better opportunity was now af- 
forded the Mexican people to justify the faith of the 
republics of North and South America. 

Eighteen months in office had revealed in practice the 
principles underlying the foreign policy of President 
Wilson. Of the problems facing him at the opening of 
his administration he had disposed of the controversy 
with Great Britain, and in such a way as to empha- 
size our belief in the inviolability of treaty obligations, 
and in Mexico had carried to a triumphant conclusion the 
most important phase of his Latin American program. 
Although the Mexican problem had yet to assume its 
most threatening character, and pending controversies 
with Japan and Colombia were unsettled, the President 
had indicated his mode of procedure in each case, and 
his conduct in other matters and his expressions of pur- 
pose gave ample warrant for the thought that difficulties 
were to be lessened by a general acceptance of his leader- 
ship. In evaluating the work of the administration 
Charles W. Eliot placed as the principal achievements, 
not the legislative enactments upon tariff, currency and 
the trusts that had occupied so much of the attention of 
the President, but the '' contributions to sound interna- 
tional policies and conduct." ^ It is this record and the 

'^Harper's Weekly, August 22, 1914. Also printed in Congres- 
sional Record, LI, Appendix, 869. 



PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE 43 

impression that its character had made abroad as well as 
at home that stood as a matter of history when the Euro- 
pean war broke upon the world and gave President Wil- 
son the leadership of the American people in the greatest 
crisis of their history. 



CHAPTER III 
Maintenance of Neutrality 

Outbreak of the European War — Initial Position of the 
United States — Meaning of Neutrality — Attitude upon Brit- 
ish Policy — Plans of the Administration — Difficulties with 
Germany — American Proposal for Modus Vivendi — Duties 
of the United States — Result of American Adherence to Rules 
of International Law — Possibility of an International Tribunal. 

Upon the outbreak of the European war the President, 
as was expected, issued a proclamation of neutrality, and 
followed it by a statement to the belligerent governments 
that he w^ould welcome an opportunity to act in the inter- 
est of European peace, at that or any future time. Of 
more vital significance in view of the developments soon 
to appear, the United States sent an identic note to the 
several powers on August 6, 19 14, in which attention 
was called to the differences of opinion as to the rights 
of neutrals on the sea and the proposal was made that 
for the duration of the war, the laws of naval warfare 
laid down in the Declaration of London be accepted by 
all nations.^ In making this suggestion the administra- 
tion took the basic position it w^as to occupy in the 
ensuing months of diplomatic controversy. 

1 Official correspondence relative to the Declaration of London was 
published by Department of State, Dif^lomatic Correspondence with 
Belligerent Governments Relating to Neutral Rights and Commerce, 
European War Series, No. i, pp. 5-8. 

44 



MAINTENAIJCE OF NEUTRALITY 45 

The Declaration of London had been formulated at a 
conference of ten maritime powers in 1909, but had not 
been formally ratified except by the United States.^ Yet 
there had been very general approval of its proposals.^ 
In this situation the government of the United States took 
the opportunity accorded at the outset of a European war, 
in w^hich the participation of Great Britain made certain 
the vital importance of the rules of naval warfare, to pro- 
pose to the belligerents a modus vivendi. The impor- 
tance of the suggestion lay not only in the possibility of an 
agreement among the belligerents as to the rules, but in 
die thought that had underlain the original declaration 
and that had characterized many earlier American posi- 
tions, that is that the rights of neutrals should be deter- 
mined by a power greater than the will of any single bel- 
ligerent. In taking such a position at the outset the 
American government made easier many a subsequent 
step in its defence of the rights of neutral nations. 

Before replies were received from the belligerents an- 
other phase of the position of the United States as a neu- 
tral came to occupy the centre of attention. To the peo- 
ple of the United States the war appeared as one more in 
a long series of European quarrels, and, long accustomed 
to a non-interference in European affairs, they naturally 
looked upon themselves as spectators and possible medi- 
ators in this Great War. It was apparent at once, how- 

^ For text of the Declaration of London see American Journal of 
International Law, III, Supplement, 179. 

- For (Ictailcrl information upon status of the Declaration in I9I4» 
see ibid., IX, 199. 



46 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

ever, that, as in previous conflicts, there were to be groups 
in the United States deeply sympathetic with the various 
nations involved. At the outset the sympathies were 
largely those born of nationality and language. It was 
not clear that basic principles in governmental or social 
theory were issues in the conflict. It did not appear at 
that time that the conflict was one between autocracy and 
democracy. It seemed that there were elements of each 
on both sides. However, the influence of nationality ap- 
peared really threatening, as it had not during earlier 
European quarrels, for several millions of the citizens 
of America had been born in the portions of Europe 
involved in the war. 

In the President's conduct or words there was no hint 
of American participation in the conflict. But in less 
than a month the differences in points of view of Ameri- 
can citizens arising out of dift'erences in national stocks 
became so evident and speakers so intemperate that the 
President issued an appeal to his fellow-countrymen " to 
be neutral in fact as well as in name." {Statement No. 
21.) '* We must be impartial in thought as well as in 
action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as 
upon every transaction that might be construed as a pref- 
erence of one party to the struggle before another." 
Such advice quite obviously sprang from an assumption 
that the greatest dangers for the L'nited States in this 
conflict were not those threatening vital American inter- 
ests on land or sea, but those to be found in actions of 



MAINTENANCE OF NEUTRALITY 47 

citizens of the United States that might be construed as 
showing preference to one of the belhgerents. He had in 
mind the neutrahty of a people far removed from the con- 
flict. Yet by the second part of this statement the Presi- 
dent did not mean that the United States should cut inter- 
course with the various nations; it was not his thought 
that the United States should draw off from the sea, 
but merely that its treatment of the nations should be 
impartial within the well-recognized agreements of inter- 
national law. Where there was not agreement, the posi- 
tions taken by the United States in earlier conflicts should 
furnish the guide. 

In keeping with his offer of mediation the President 
avoided any step that would seem to indicate that his na- 
tion was passing judgment upon the conduct of nations 
at war. In response to appeals made in September of 
19 14 by bodi the French and German governments, and 
for different reasons by a commission from Belgium, the 
President stated that " it would be unwise, it would be 
premature for a single Government, however fortunately 
separated from the present struggle, it would even be in- 
consistent with the neutral position of any nation which 
like this has no part in the contest, to form or express a 
final judgment." (Statement No. 22.) In refraining 
from a protest upon the invasion of Belgium President 
Wilson was following the tradition of non-interference in 
the aff'airs of Europe. That he was acting in accordance 
with the general expectation at that time will not be de- 



48 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

nied, in spite of the overwhelming tide of sympathy for 
the people of Belgium among the people of the United 
States^. 

In these replies the President referred to the existence of 
treaties between the belligerent nations for the settlement 
of just such disputes as these protests had brought to his 
attention. It is of interest to note that within a period of 
two weeks following the outbreak of the war, the United 
States Senate had ratified treaties with eighteen countries, 
each of them providing for commissions of inquiry.^ 
Moreover, on September 15, 19 14, treaties of a like 
nature were signed at Washington with Great Britain, 
France, Spain and China. Secretary Bryan stated at this 
time that twenty-six nations had signed such treaties and 
that Russia, Germany and Austria were being urged to do 
likewise. Nothing could be clearer than that the exist- 
ence of the European war had not, as yet, affected the 
purpose of those whose aim it was to devise additional 
means for preventing international conflicts. 

In mid-September the President made an informal pro- 
posal to Germany that negotiations looking to peace be 
undertaken, presumably under the auspices of the govern- 
ment of the United States. The nature of the German 
reply which asked that the United States obtain from the 
Allies a statement preliminary to a conference led the 
President to proceed no further at that time. 

In October it became known that the proposal of the 

1 For text see American Journal of International Law, VII, 824. 
Record and list of ratifications, ibid., VIII, 565; IX, 175. 



MAINTENANCE OF NEUTRALITY 49 

United States for the general acceptance of the Declara- 
tion of London, although accepted tentatively by Ger- 
many and Austria-Hungary, had not been adopted be- 
cause the Allies under lead of Great Britain had named 
qualifying conditions. Consequently the government of 
the United States withdrew its suggestion of August 6, 
1914, and fell back upon the already accepted rules of in- 
ternational law and the treaties then in existence, reserv- 
ing the right to protest and demand reparation in each 
case of violation of its own rights. 

ATTITUDE UPON BRITISH POLICY 

Daily the American government was becoming more 
involved in the struggle, owing in large measure to the 
presence of American shipping in European waters and 
the disagreement among the belligerents as to the defini- 
tion of contraband and the treatment of cargoes bound 
for neutral ports in Europe. The situation was of such a 
character as to increase in difficulty. The British Orders 
in Council of August, September and October steadily 
increased the control that Great Britain presumed to 
exercise over the commerce of neutrals.-^ As Great 
Britain was in control of the sea the primary American 
grievance seemed against that government. 

On December 26, 19 14, the United States filed a lengthy 
protest against the seizure and destruction of cargoes 
bound for neutral ports. Great Britain was charged with 

1 Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 
Series, No. i, pp. 11-18. 



50 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

violation of the rules in cases of both conditional and ab- 
solute contraband. It was pointed out that peace, not 
war, was the normal relation between nations, and the re- 
quest was definitely made that Great Britain " refrain 
from all unnecessary interference with the freedom of 
trade between nations which are sufferers, though not par- 
ticipants, in the present conflict." (Statement No. 25.) 
The tone of this note and the practice of the Department 
of State in filing notes of protest in each specific case 
made it clear that it was the purpose of the administra- 
tion to consistently and completely present the American 
contention and to wait upon a more happy time to press 
the matters to a decision before courts of arbitration. 

The President's point of view had been stated in Oc- 
tober when he said before the American Bar Association, 
" The opinion of the world is the mistress of the world, 
and the processes of international law are the slow proc- 
esses by which opinion works its will." {Statement No. 
2^. ) Yet in the same address the President revealed that 
he was thinking of the possibilities, as yet largely hidden, 
in the struggle for power in Europe. For he spoke of the 
time of world change when men were going to find out 
" just how, and in what particulars, and to what extent 
the real facts of human life and the real moral judgments 
of mankind prevail. ..." 

PLANS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

If, however, Woodrow Wilson was quickening to a 
realization of the months of diplomatic strife that were 



MAINTENANCE OF NEUTRALITY 51 

before him, he gave no hint of it in his second annual 
message to Congress in December of 1914. (Statement 
No. 24.) '' No one," said he, '' who speaks counsel based 
on fact or drawn from a just and candid interpretation of 
realities can say that there is any reason to fear that from 
any quarter our independence or the integrity of our ter- 
ritory is threatened." He spoke at length of the need to 
develop better measures for trade with Latin America, 
and in general to put American shipping upon the sea 
while opportunities were offered by the engrossment of 
European nations in the war. The unprecedented de- 
struction of men and goods in Europe made it necessary 
because the time was approaching when as never before 
Europe would need American aid. " We should be 
ready, more fit and ready than we have ever been," urged 
the President. 

While thus urging the passage by the Senate of a 
specific shipping bill, endorsed in an earlier session by 
the administration, the President paused to ask favour- 
able action by the Senate upon a matter of a very different 
nature. This was a bill granting to the people of 
the Philippines a larger measure of self-government. 
Within a few months of taking office the President had 
made known his general attitude in this matter, but in 
addressing the Congress at this time he placed the need 
upon quite (^ther grounds, significant in view of his later 
utterances upon the European war. '' How better," he 
asked, '' in this time of anxious questioning and per- 
plexed policy, could we show our confidence in the 



52 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

principles of liberty, as the source as well as the expres- 
sion of life, how better could we demonstrate our own 
self-possession and steadfastness in the courses of jus- 
tice and disinterestedness than by thus going calmly for- 
ward to fulfil our promises to a dependent people, who 
will look more anxiously than ever to see whether we 
have indeed the liberality, the unselfishness, the courage, 
the faith we have boasted and professed?" 

The quite obvious contrast between the attitude of the 
United States government toward Mexico, and that of 
Austria toward Servia had not been lost upon careful 
observers of Wilson's foreign policy. Here again it was 
patent that the President intended to make perfectly 
plain to an unbelieving world that there was even in time 
of tragic uncertainty for a great portion of mankind such 
a possibility as an enduring belief in self-government. 

DIFFICULTIES WITH GERMANY 

But it was increasingly difficult not to be drawn into 
the European maelstrom. On January 7, 191 5, Secretary 
Bryan in reply to a request of the German government 
that the government of the United States investigate 
charges of improper practices in fuirope stated that the 
United States government could not as a neutral investi- 
gate or even comment. 

The next development required more than a mere re- 
fusal to act. Repeatedly had the charge been made, and 
now with greater insistence as the winter advanced, that 
the attitude of the administration evidenced marked dis- 



MAINTENANCE OF NEUTRALITY 53 

crimination against Germany and Austria. This arose 
out of many things, but from nothing so much perhaps as 
the determination of the President to abide strictly by the 
rules of international law, and where disagreement or 
uncertainty existed as to any rules to maintain an Ameri- 
can case based upon whatever precedent existed. This 
was emphasized by the refusal of the American govern- 
ment to countenance proposed changes in the rules or cus- 
toms even where there was plausible justification for it in 
alterations in methods of maritime warfare.' Whenever 
the German government decided to force this issue the op- 
position of the United States would be inevitable. 

On January 20, 19 15, Secretary Bryan in a letter to 
Senator Stone took up twenty charges of discrimination 
and presented the administration's answers. (Statement 
No. 2/.) The spirit of the reply appeared in the con- 
cluding paragraph: '* If any American citizens, parti- 
sans of Germany and Austria-Hungary, feel that this ad- 
ministration is acting in a way injurious to the cause of 
those countries, this feeling results from the fact that on 
the high seas the German and Austro-Hungarian naval 
power is thus far inferior to the British. It is the busi- 
ness of a belligerent operating on the high seas, not the 
duty of a neutral, to prevent contraband from reaching an 
enemy. Those in this country who sympathize with Ger- 
many and Austria-Hungary appear to assume that some 
obligation rests upon this Government in the performance 
of its neutral duty to prevent all trade in contraband, and 
thus to equalize the difference due to the relative naval 



54 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

strength of the belHgerents. No such obligation exists; 
it would be an unneutral act, an act of partiality upon the 
part of this Government to adopt such a policy if the 
Executive had the power to do so. If Germany and 
Austria-Hungary cannot import contraband from this 
country, it is not, because of that fact, the duty of the 
United States to close its markets to the allies. The 
markets of this country are open upon equal terms to 
all the world, to every nation, belligerent or neutral." 
This letter did not close the controversy, for the question 
continued to agitate a great portion of the American 
people. 

The action of the German government that followed 
immediately upon this correspondence brought home to 
the administration the real dangers of neutrality in such 
a war as was about to be waged upon the sea. What had 
seemed an advisable agreement in August now seemed 
absolutely essential, if the possibility of neutrality was not 
to disappear. Fortunately the basis for the American 
action in the new contingency had been laid and the pro- 
tests of the previous six months had been built upon it. 

In an effort to overcome the naval supremacy of Great 
Britain, which was never more conclusive than on Feb- 
ruary I, 191 5, the German government decided to risk 
upon the sea a decided departure from the rules of inter- 
national law and to justify it as retaliation against the 
British restrictions upon neutral commerce. On Feb- 
ruary 4, 191 5, the German Admiralty issued a proclama- 
tion declaring a " war zone " about the British Isles and 



MAINTENANCE OF NEUTRALITY 55 

warning neutrals of the dangers therein.^ After Feb- 
ruary 18, 191 5, it was the intention that German sub- 
marines should destroy every merchant vessel without 
making provision for safety of crews or passengers. In 
warfare of such a nature neutral vessels were subject to 
peril within the " war zone," the peril inherent in a situa- 
tion where mistakes must occur. There was further 
complication in the fact that British vessels were upon 
occasion using neutral flags, which placed the neutral ves- 
sels in a dangerous position, in view of the fact that a 
submarine could not visit and search to make sure of 
identity, but must sink without warning, as the proclama- 
tion explained. 

This raised for the administration a new question. 
Here it was not a matter of the capture of a vessel because 
of the destination of its cargo or the existence of block- 
ade, such as had led to the protests to England ; it was a 
question of absolute destruction by submarines. Thus it 
raised not a question of submission to seizure, or even 
confiscation or destruction of property, but of probable, 
indeed almost certain, destruction of life. Keenly alive 
to the dangerous possibilities inherent in the new situa- 
tion, the American government on February 10, 191 5, ex- 
postulated, particularizing upon the possible destruction 
of any merchant vessel of the United States or the death 
of American citizens. The Imperial German govern- 
ment would be held " to a strict accountability for such 
acts of their naval authorities." {Statement No. 2^.) 

1 Text, ibid., No. i, p. 52. 



56 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

On the same day the American government protested to 
Great Britain against the reported use of the American 
flag on a British vessel while travelling through the war 
zone. 

The German minister for foreign affairs in a note of 
February i6, 191 5, admitted that the proposed submarine 
campaign was a drastic measure.^ It was undertaken to 
break the British blockade upon foodstuffs and in turn, 
also, cut off the British supply of munitions. From the 
point of view of neutrals this statement was a declaration 
that in order to make it possible for neutrals to trade 
with Germany in foodstuffs it intended to make it im- 
possible for them to trade with the Allies in munitions. 
This note opened a way for an American proposal by 
intimating that should the American government obtain 
from the powers at war with Germany an observation 
of the Declaration of London, " the German Government 
would recognize this as a service which could not be too 
highly estimated in favour of more humane conduct of 
war and would gladly draw the necessary conclusions 
from the new situation thus created." 

On February 20, 19 15, the United States presented to 
the belligerents suggestions for a modus vivcndi in this 
emergency. It proposed that foodstuffs might be permit- 
ted to reach Germany for the sole use of non-combatants. 
It also proposed restrictions upon use of floating mines. 
But most important of all was the condition, '' That 
neither [Germany nor Great Britain] will use submarines 

1 Text, ihid., No. i, p. 56. 



MAINTENANCE OF NEUTRALITY 57 

to attack merchant vessels of any nationality except to 
enforce the right of visit and search." (Statement No. 
JO.) 

In its reply of March i, 19 15, the German government 
stated its willingness to acquiesce in the American sugges- 
tions contingent upon the abandonment by Great Britain 
and its Allies of the practice of arming merchant vessels. 
The British note of March 15, 191 5, gave the answer of 
the Allies to the American effort at compromise. In the 
refusal to assent to alteration of a well-established prac- 
tice the British government made impossible the accept- 
ance of the modus vivendi. 

The American government in a note of March 30, 191 5, 
denied the legality of the sweeping changes made by the 
British in their Orders in Council. The British must be 
prepared *' to make full reparation for every act which 
under the rules of international law constitutes a viola- 
tion of neutral rights." ^ In absence of an agreement by 
the belligerents upon an alteration in established practice 
the United States fell back upon its original and basic 
position, an insistence upon international law as it stood 
at the opening of the war. Upon such a position it built 
its protests.^ 

Aside from the fact that it was the German govern- 
ment, not that of Great Britain, which had threatened the 

1 Ihid., No. I, p. 69. 

2 American position on status of armed merchant vessels was 
given in memorandum of Department of State issued September 19, 
1914. Text, American Journal of International Law, IX, Supple- 
ment, 121. 



58 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

most drastic changes in the rules, there was in the man- 
ner of the British enforcement of their Orders in Council 
an additional reason for the American willingness to 
leave grievances against Great Britain to adjudication by 
courts. The British decrees were enforced, in an accord- 
ance with dictates of humanity, without risk to neutral 
ships, cargoes or passengers. Moreover, there had been 
concluded during the past six months with Great Britain, 
France and Russia treaties providing for commissions of 
inquiry for treatment of '' any differences ... of what- 
ever nature." The third of these, that with Russia, had 
been proclaimed on March 25, 191 5. No such treaties 
had been made with Germany and Austria.^ 

DUTIES OF THE UNITED STATES 

On April 8, 191 5, the President restated with consid- 
erable emphasis his oft-repeated insistence upon neutral- 
ity in word and deed. (Statement No. j/.) The utter- 
ance indicated, however, a change, slight indeed, in the 
President's attitude toward the formulation of an Ameri- 
can judgment upon the practices and purposes of the bel- 
ligerent governments. He seemed conscious, also, of a 
danger involved in seeming to restrain the opinion of 
mankind or, more particularly, that of a large majority 
of his own countrymen. High as he held the wisdom of 
American non-participation — and he was presently to 
hold it at great cost to his prestige as a leader — he 

1 For treatment of the effect of these treaties upon relations of 
United States with the nations at war see American Journal of In- 
ternational Law, IX. 494. 



MAINTENANCE OF NEUTRALITY 59 

seemed to feel the irksomeness of his admonition to be 
neutral. Naturally a neutral attitude became less easy 
to maintain, however desirable it might continue to be, 
when one of the belligerents threatened the lives of 
neutrals.^ 

To the members of the Associated Press he admitted 
on April 20, 191 5, that he spoke to them with restraint, 
where he preferred that it might have been otherwise. 
" There have been times," said he, ^' when I stood in this 
spot and said what I really thought, and I pray God that 
those days of indulgence may be accorded me again." 
(Statement N'o. ?j.) He felt, as he said, that there was 
approaching a climax in the affairs of the world. This 
climax would bring to the severest test, not only the 
European belligerents, but also the people and govern- 
ment of the United States. 

The President struck a new note in his interpretation 
of neutrality. He still maintained that judgment by the 
United States was preposterous, but he asserted that the 
basis of neutrality was not found in indifference nor in 
self-interest, but in sympathy for mankind. In spite of 
his desire to refrain from passing judgment, but in fur- 
therance of his hope of an American mediation, he was 
not unwilling at this time to give greater currency to the 
idea that the United States was ready as no other nation 
was " to form some part of the assessing opinion of the 
world." 

1 On this same day, April 8, 1915, a steamer in the service of the 
American Commission for the Relief of Belgium was torpedoed and 
fifteen lives were lost. 



6o DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

Although awaiting a day when American participation 
in the negotiations would be welcomed, the President 
pointed out that the American people, made up of many 
nations, were in an advantageous position to understand 
all nations. He recalled that they had already shown 
their disinterestedness in the administration of the affairs 
of other peoples. The President could have pointed to 
his policy in the Philippines, and perhaps he had his 
course in Mexico in mind, although he said nothing of 
either. '' We do not want anything," he said, *' that does 
not belong to us. Isn't a nation in that position free to 
serve other nations . . . ? " 

Aptly as the title " America first " fitted this address, 
it was in reality a call to a field of service wider than the 
boundaries of the United States. This call met with a 
generous response in the United States. The President 
was interpreted, quite generally, as coveting an oppor- 
tunity for the United States to act as a mediator at the 
close of hostilities, but, even limited in such a way, the 
suggestion gave impetus to a sentiment that was in need 
of aid. No paragraph, perhaps, gave more heart to that 
segment of American opinion which was losing faith in 
the patient policy of the President than that in which he 
spoke of nations as men. He desired for America that 
" splendid courage of reserve moral force " which impels 
a nation to withhold its hand until the time when physical 
force alone would wipe out wrongdoing. 

On the day following this address, April 21st, the 



MAINTENANCE OF NEUTRALITY 6i 

American government made reply to a communication 
from the German government dated April 4, 191 5. In 
this communication the German government had im- 
pugned the good faith of the United States as a neutral, 
specifying the alleged submission to British infringement 
upon American rights, and had plainly asked for an em- 
bargo upon arms.^ As the American reply stated, the 
position of the American government had already been 
made abundantly clear. (Statement No. ^4.) But 
again the American government restated its refusal to 
alter well recognized practices in time of war. Nor did 
its note minimize, as did the German contention, the im- 
portance of making a record of protest against Brit- 
ish invasions of American rights. This note, prepared 
by the President himself, concluded with these words: 
'' This Government holds, as I believe Your Excellency 
is aware, and as it is constrained to hold in view of the 
present indisputable doctrines of accepted international 
law, that any change in its own laws of neutrality during 
the progress of a war, which would affect unequally the 
relations of the United States with the nations at war 
would be an unjustifiable departure from the principle 
of strict neutrality by which it has consistently sought 
to direct its actions, and I respectfully submit that none 
of the circumstances urged in Your Excellency's memo- 
randum alters the principle involved. The placing of 

1 For text of memorandum see Department of State, Diplomatic 
Correspondence, European War Series, No. i, p. 73. 



62 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

an embargo on trade in arms at the present time would 
constitute such a change and be a direct violation of the 
neutrality of the United States." 

The refusal by the American government to press the 
cases against Great Britain had the effect of favouring 
sea power in the European conflict. Had the American 
government proceeded against Great Britain with em- 
bargo or reprisal it would have resulted in distinct advan- 
tage to the German cause. The decision of the American 
government was natural, as it was an adherence to the 
rules. But it carried with it the inevitability as far as the 
United States was concerned of actual participation when 
Germany insisted upon its demands. 

The note of April 21, 191 5, closed the controversy with 
Germany as far as it related to the shipment of arms to 
the Allies. But any satisfaction that might have been 
felt in the United States over its conclusion was marred 
by the general dissatisfaction with the German methods 
of propaganda which had served to give the matter so 
bitter a character. 

For nine months the administration had maintained 
the policy of neutrality indicated at the outbreak of the 
war in Europe.^ From the outset this policy had em- 
braced these elements : an insistence upon the supremacy 
of international law ; a record of protest upon all matters 

1 Detailed treatment of the position of the American govern- 
ment upon the more important points may be found in editorial 
comment, American Journal of International Lazv, IX, 456-473. 
See also M. Smith, " American Diplomacy in the European War," 
Political Science Quarterly, XXXI, 481-484, 488-494. 



MAINTENANCE OF NEUTRALITY 63 

involving the United States as a neutral ; a refusal to in- 
terfere in disputes not concerning the United States di- 
rectly as a neutral; a defence of American actions as 
sanctioned by international practice; proposals for a 
modus vivendi in an effort to increase the security of 
non-belligerents. The fact that such a course favoured 
the sea power of Great Britain had brought controversy 
with Germany in such a way as to indicate that Ger- 
many demanded of the United States an action that 
would result in favour to its cause. Consequently — 
aside from the routine matters of protest — the business 
of neutrality involved dealing with the German demands. 
A growing appreciation of this fact was revealed in the 
actions and words of the President after the rejection 
of the American proposal of February 20, 191 5. Should 
Germany force the submarine issue it would bring to 
the American government the problem of adequate pro- 
tection of the position of neutrals. The President was 
to seek this protection through diplomacy and to do 
so with marked success. That he had not placed entire 
faith in it as an ultimate solution was indicated by his 
utterances in April upon the need of international co-op- 
eration and the wisdom of a greater participation by the 
United States in affairs affecting the world as a whole. 



CHAPTER IV 

Freedom of the Seas 

German Submarine Campaign — Policy of the Administra- 
tion — Place of the United States in the World — Basis of 
American Protest — ^^ttitude of the Government Toward Mex- 
ico — Pan-American Conference and Solution for Mexico — 
Championship of Integrity of Neutral Rights — German Propa- 
ganda in the United States — President's Position on Prepared- 
ness — Duties of the United States — International Peace. 

Early in the conflict, as in former European wars, the 
Atlantic had seemed a barrier that separated the United 
States from the struggle. But as the war progressed the 
ocean seemed the highway tiiat might lead to American 
participation. In attempting to make good the claim that 
changes in rules of the sea should be ratified by all na- 
tions President Wilson was following in the path long 
chosen by American diplomats, but to a greater degree 
than his predecessors he faced the necessity of making 
good the contention of neutrals in face of attack, not only 
upon property, but upon life itself. The United States 
had never in its history been quite able to ignore conflicts 
upon the sea. In the Great War it was the phase of the 
struggle that involved freedom of the sea that in time 
came to affect the vital interests of the United States. 

Toward the close of April of 191 5 it was apparent that 

64 



FREEDOM OF THE SEAS 65 

the German government was preparing to test the full 
value of the submarine for bringing into being the Ger- 
man conception of freedom of the seas.^ The activity of 
German submarines in the " war zone '' claimed increas- 
ing notice from the American public. On iMarch 28, 
191 5, an American had been lost when a British steamer, 
the Falaba, had been sunk, and a month later an Ameri- 
can vessel, the dishing, had been shelled by an aeroplane. 
On May i, 191 5, an American steamer, the GulHight, was 
sunk by a submarine and two American citizens were lost. 
Prior to this two American ships had been sunk by Ger- 
man mines. Moreover, the W^illiam P. Frye, also of 
American registry, had been captured and sunk by a Ger- 
man raider in the South Atlantic. These events and the 
increasingly aggressive character of propaganda in Amer- 
ica had brought American excitement to a high pitch. 
German agencies had entered upon a campaign of intimi- 
dation, citing these attacks and threatening others, in an 
avowed effort to compel Americans and American ship- 
ping to keep out of the " war zone." On April 22, 1915^ 
the German embassy at Washington was responsible for 
publication in the newspapers of a warning to Americans 
not to travel in British vessels. 

When on May 7, 191 5, the British liner Lusitania was 
sunk without warning and one hundred and twenty-four 
Americans were lost, the public mind was prepared for a 
crisis, and consequently for the administration the time of 

1 See C. P. Anderson, " Freedom of the Seas," Annals of American 
Academy, LXXII, 65. Also C. G. Fenwick, "The Freedom of the 
Seas," American Political Science Review, XI, 386. 



66 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

greatest test had come. All precedent and the President's 
earlier words, not in his speeches, it is true, but in his 
dispatches, pointed to a break with Germany. Six days 
elapsed before a communication was sent to the German 
government. In the interim, three days after the sink- 
ing, the President addressed an audience of newly natu- 
ralized citizens at Philadelphia. (Statement No. jj.) 
What he said was scanned for a clue to his proposed ac- 
tion. The statement of basic principles that he had so 
often iterated from his entrance upon office was over- 
looked partly because the ideas were so familiar, but more 
perhaps because it was thought that the President would 
in some concrete way foreshadow a new treatment for 
this specific situation. 

Two short paragraphs only could by any interpretation 
be regarded as an indication of what the President in- 
tended to do. He had led up to a call to America to set 
an example to a world rent with strife, and then suddenly 
astonished most of his countrymen by saying, " There is 
such a thing as a man being too proud to fight." So 
astonished were they, and so obsessed with prevailing 
personifications of nations, that the sentence following 
was quite generally forgotten and its significance lost. 
Yet the second sentence contained the spirit of the Presi- 
dent's policy since the outbreak of the war, and the spirit 
of his reply to Germany. He said, " There is such a 
thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to 
convince others by force that it is right." By this the 
President meant that the United States was adhering to 



FREEDOM OF THE SEAS 67 

international law and still maintained the position, often 
taken, that of reliance upon other means than trial by 
battle. This was not a new thought with the President. 
Indeed he had said to the Associated Press some weeks 
before : '' My interest in the neutrality of the United 
States is not the petty desire to keep out of trouble. . . . 
I am interested in neutrality because there is something 
so much greater to do than fight. . . . There is a distinc- 
tion waiting for this nation that no nation has ever yet 
got. That is the distinction of absolute self-control and 
self-mastery." (Statement No. S3-) 

Because of recent events, particularly the continuance 
of German propaganda, lines of division based on national 
stocks had deepened, and the President took the op- 
portunity to say to these recently naturalized citizens: 
" You cannot dedicate yourself to America unless you 
become in every respect and with every purpose of your 
will thorough Americans. You cannot become thorough 
Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. ... A 
man who thinks himself as belonging to a particular na- 
tional group in America has not yet become an American, 
and the man who goes among you to trade upon your 
nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and 
Stripes." But perhaps wishing to avoid too great an 
emphasis upon Americanism at this time, he went on, 
" My urgent advice to you would be not only always to 
think first of America, but always, also, to think first 
of humanity. . . . America was created to unite man- 
kind. . . ." 



68 DEVELOrMENT OF THE POLICY 

The following day the cabinet considered the communi- 
cation to be sent to Germany and on May 13, 191 5, it was 
delivered to the German ambassador.^ (Statement No. 
j6.) The series of attacks, including those upon the 
Cnshing and the GultUght, and culminating in that on the 
Lusitania, had been viewed by the government of the 
United States '* with growing concern, distress and 
amazement." No abbreviation of the neutral rights of 
y\merican shipmasters or American citizens could be per- 
nu'tted. l')Ut the basis for the American case was put on 
other than the grounds merely of the rights of American 
citizens, imjHjrtant though they were, — *' The Government 
of the United States . . . desires to call the attention of 
the imperial German Government with the utmost earnest- 
ness to the fact that the objection to their present method 
of attack against the trade of their enemies lies in the 
practical impossibility of employing submarines in the de- 
struction of commerce without disregarding those rules of 
fairness, reason, justice, and humanity, which all modern 
opinion regards as imperative. It is practically impos- 
sible for the officers of a submarine to visit a merchant- 
man at sea and exannne her papers and cargo. It is 
practically impossible for tliem to make a prize of her; 
and, if they can not put a prize crew on board of her, 
they can not sink her w ithout leaving her crew and all on 
board of her to the mercy of the sea in her small boats. 

^ Two clays after the siiikiiip; of the Lusitania the German Rovern- 
inent had presented a note dealing with treatment of neutral vessels 
in the " war zone," atid the next day, May lo, 1915, a message of 
sympathy on loss of American lives. 



FREEDOM OF THE SEAS 69 

. . . Manifestly submarines can not be used against 
merchantmen, as the last few weeks have shown, without 
an inevitable violation of many sacred principles of jus- 
tice and humanity." 

The United States was not here protesting so much 
against the injury or death of a citizen of a neutral state, 
a common incident of war, as it was protesting against 
the attack by a belligerent power upon all neutrals. As 
the invasion of Belgium was to Europe, so this German 
declaration was to the whole world, — a declaration that 
law was not binding, not the laws of property, but the 
laws of humanity. But the note closed with the state- 
ment that the United States government would not " omit 
any word or any act necessary to the performance of its 
sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United 
States and its citizens." The larger significance of this 
note was concisely stated in an editorial in the American 
Journal of International Laiv: " A mighty belligerent 
has thus been brought, so to speak, before the bar of 
humanity and civilization to answer a no less powerful 
neutral for alleged infractions of the laws governing 
their relations in the society of nations, of which they 
are both members." ^ 

An opportunity was afforded the President to speak 
more directly to his own countrymen four days later. May 
17, 191 5, when he spoke briefly on the occasion of a re- 
view of the Atlantic fleet. {Statement No. 57.) He 
felt that the people of the United States possessed an efli- 

''^ American Journal of International Law, IX, 672. 



70 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

cient navy, partly, as he said, '' because that navy some- 
how is expected to express their character not within our 
own borders, where that character is understood, but out- 
side our borders, where it is hoped we may occasionally 
touch others with some slight vision of what America 
stands for." 

The President reverted to this later in the same ad- 
dress. America " asks nothing for herself except what 
she has a right to ask for humanity itself. We want no 
nation's property; we wish to question no nation's hon- 
our; we wish to stand selfishly in the way of the develop- 
ment of no nation; we want nothing that we cannot get 
by our own legitimate enterprise and by the inspiration of 
our own example." This might serve as a summary of 
the President's endeavour in the preceding two years. 
He felt, as he stated, that his policies embodied the spirit 
and purpose of the United States. '^ . . The force of 
America is the force of moral principle, . . . there is not 
anything else that she loves, and . . . there is nothing 
else for which she will contend." In such a spirit Wilson 
carried on the controversy with Germany. 

The German answer of May 28, 191 5, was distinctly 
unsatisfactory.^ On June 9, 191 5, a second note was 

^ Note of May 28, 1915, should be carefully distinguished from 
German notes of May 9, 1915, and May 10, 1915. Infra, p. 75. 
Prior to the German note of May 28, 191 5, in reply to the American 
note of May 13, 1915, the American steamer, Nebraskan, had on 
May 25, 191 5, been attacked by a submarine. No lives had been 
lost. On June i, 1915, the German government presented the Amer- 
ican government reports upon the Gushing and the Gulflight. De- 
partment of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 
Series, No. 2, p. 170. 



FREEDOM OF THE SEAS 71 

sent. Secretary Bryan resigned on June 8, 191 5. In- 
stead of the treatment of the German issue indicated in 
this note, he desired to provide for an investigation by an 
international commission, and further that Americans be 
warned not to travel on vessels of the belligerent powers 
or on those carrying cargoes of ammunition. Mr. Bryan 
gave out two statements in explanation of his course 
of action.^ It would seem from a fair reading of them 
that he felt that by the course of the United States in 
concluding treaties with twenty-eight nations providing 
for commissions of inquiry, the United States was 
morally bound to proceed in this matter as if such a 
treaty had been concluded with Germany.- Mr. Wilson 
apparently believed that he had not exhausted the prelimi- 
nary stage of diplomatic negotiation, and he proved to be 
right.""^ 

The President in this second note maintained : '' The 
sinking of passenger ships involves principles of human- 
ity which throw into the background any special circum- 
stances of detail that may be thought to affect the cases, 
principles which lift it . . . out of the class of ordinary 
subjects of diplomatic discussion or international contro- 
versy. . . . The Government of the United States is con- 
tending for something much greater than mere rights of 

^ Nezu York Times, June 9, 1915 ; June 11, 1915. 

2 For dispassionate editorial comment upon the significance of the 
service of Mr. Bryan as Secretary of State see American Journal of 
International Lazv, IX, 664-666. 

3 Robert Lansing, who had served as Counsellor for the Depart- 
ment of State since April i, 1914, was appointed Secretary of State 
June 2Z, 1915- 



y2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

property or privileges of commerce. It is contending for 
nothing less high and sacred than the rights of humanity, 
which every Government honors itself in respecting and 
which no Government is justified in resigning on behalf 
of those under its care and authority." (Statement No. 
jp.) Here was a moral principle for which the United 
States might be expected to fight if Germany persisted in 
its course. 

Although the United States in this note asked for as- 
surance that American ships and American lives should 
not continue to be jeopardized, the German government 
was slow in replying and its note of July 8, 19 15, was un- 
satisfactory. A third American note on the Liisitania 
was sent on July 21, 19 15. {Statement No. 40.) While 
based on the same general principles of the earlier notes 
its tone was sharper. Recurrence of such sinkings 
" when they affect American citizens " would be consid- 
ered '' deliberately unfriendly." Yet on August 19, 191 5, 
the liner Arabic was sunk and two Americans were among 
those lost. A serious crisis was avoided by the immedi- 
ate acknowledgment of responsibility by the German gov- 
ernment. Moreover, on September i, 191 5, the impor- 
tance of specific cases was overshadowed by the general 
pledge of the German government : *' Liners will not be 
sunk by our submarines without warning and without 
safety of the lives of noncombatants, provided that the 
liners do not trv to escape or ofYer resistance." ^ Thus ' 

1 Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 
Series, No. 3, p. 159. Notwithstanding this pledge the liner Hes- 



.FREEDOM OF THE SEAS 73 

the necessity that the United States should enter upon a 
war for a moral principle was avoided at this time.^ 

MEXICO 

Meanwhile events in Mexico continued to give the ad- 
ministration the utmost concern. There had been no ap- 
parent diminution in disorder and attacks upon American 
citizens were still frequent. The American government 
protested to various leaders at different times but except 
for one marked instance the protests were fruitless. 
Early in June President Wilson admonished the various 
factions to get together. (Statement No. 38.) Unless 
they should speedily settle their differences the govern- 
ment of the United States *' must presently do what it 
has not hitherto done or felt at liberty to do, lend its 
active moral support to some man or group of men." 
This would be done for the purpose of " setting up a 
Government at Mexico City which the great powers of 
the world can recognize and deal with." This admoni- 
tion was followed in July by a demand made upon the 
contending leaders that railway communication be re- 
opened to permit shipment of food into Mexico City. 

Although intervention on the part of the United States 
seemed near, it did not materialize. Instead, a Pan- 
American conference came into being to consider the mat- 

perian was sunk on September 4, 1915, and one American citizen 
was lost. 

1 Specific cases were still in controversy. The Arabic case was 
dealt with in German notes of September 7, 1915, and October 5, 
1915. 



74 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

ter and in this way. The representatives at Washington 
of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Guatemala and Uru- 
guay met with Secretary Lansing and after conference 
issued an appeal to the Mexican people and the Mexican 
leaders. {Statement No. 41.) It was specifically stated 
that the action was not to represent the will of the com- 
bined nations, but that each nation should proceed inde- 
pendently. As the suggestion for conference came from 
the American Secretary, so the spirit of the appeal was 
that of the American administration. It was an offer of 
" friendly and disinterested help." 

To the proposal of a conference all leaders, except Car- 
ranza, agreed. Subsequent appeals by the conference in 
September and October brought no favourable response 
from him. Yet on October 9, 191 5, the conference in 
bringing its session to a close agreed that the Carranza 
organization constituted a dc facto government in Mex- 
ico, and recommended its recognition. The United 
States formally granted this recognition on October 19, 
191 5, following it the next day by an embargo on the 
shipment of arms to all anti-government parties in 
Mexico. 

Thus terminated the struggle brought upon the United 
States by the refusal of the Wilson administration to rec- 
ognize the personal government of Huerta. The admin- 
istration had now recognized Carranza as constituting a 
de facto government in Mexico, and had come to this 
step with the aid and counsel of six other American pow- 
ers. As the President had welcomed an opportunity to 



FREEDOM OF THE SEAS 75 

prove his belief in mediation by the acceptance of the ofifer 
of the *' A. B. C." powers in 1914, so in 19 15, more than a 
year later, he took occasion to say of Pan- Americanism : 
" The moral is, that the states of America are not hostile 
rivals, but cooperating friends, and that their growing 
sense of community of interest, alike in matters political 
and alike in matters economic, is likely to give them a 
new significance ... in the political history of the 
world. ... It has none of the spirit of empire in it. It 
is the embodiment, the effectual embodiment, of the spirit 
of law and independence and liberty and mutual service." 
(Statement No. 4/.) 

GENERAL POLICY ^ 

In October Secretary Lansing again took up the long- 
standing controversy with Great Britain. On June 22, 
191 5, Great Britain had stated in reply to the earlier pro- 
tests of the United States that there were no substantial 
losses to neutral shipping growing out of British Orders 
in Council. In a note of October 21, 19 15, Secretary 
Lansing insisted that the British Orders in Council and 
the enforcement of them violated the basic principles laid 

* Detailed treatment may be found in editorial comment, American 
Journal of International Laiv, IX, 666-694. See also M. Smith, 
" American Diplomacy in the European War," in Political Science 
Quarterly, XXXI, 481. In a special supplement published July, 1915, 
the American Journal of International Laiv presented the Diplo- 
matic Correspondence Betzveen the United States and Belligerent 
Governments relating to Neutral Rights and Commerce. It contains 
the documents cited elsewhere as European War Series, No. i 
(printed May 27, 191 5) and some of those in ibid.. No. 2 (printed 
October 21, 1915). 



y^i DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

down in international law. (Statement No. 4j.) '' The 
Government of the United States desires ... to impress 
most earnestly upon His Majesty's Government that it 
must insist that the relations between it and His Majesty's 
Government be governed, not by a policy of expediency, 
but by those established rules of international conduct 
upon which Great Britain in the past has held the United 
States to account when the latter nation was a belliger- 
ent engaged in a struggle for national existence. It is 
of the highest importance to neutrals not only of the 
present day but of the future that the principles of inter- 
national right be maintained unimpaired. 

'* This task of championing the integrity of neutral 
rights, which have received the sanction of the civilized 
world against the lawless conduct of belligerents arising 
out of the bitterness of the great conflict which is now 
wasting the countries of Europe, the United States un- 
hesitatingly assumes, and to the accomplishment of that 
task it will devote its energies, exercising always that im- 
partiality which from the outbreak of the war it has 
sought to exercise in its relations with the warring na- 
tions." But this did not imply the necessity of waging 
war. It was filing protest and claiming the necessity of 
appealing to a greater power than that of a single bel- 
ligerent. 

The summer and fall were marked by a continuance in 
the United States of pro-German propaganda. The most 
striking event that bears upon the foreign policy of the 
administration w^as the request on September 8, 191 5, 



FREEDOAI OF THE SEAS jy 

for the recall of Constantin Dumba, the Austro-Hunga- 
rian ambassador to the United States. This was based 
upon proof of instigation of strikes among workers in 
American industries.^ In the closing months of the year 
the recall was demanded of Karl Boy-Ed and Franz von 
Papen, attaches of the German Embassy, for *' improper 
activities in naval and military matters." 

The events of the year had worked a profound change 
in the attitude of the President not toward participation 
in the war in Europe but upon the question of defence of 
American interests. In early October it became publicly 
known that the President was entirely convinced that the 
United States must take great strides toward preparation 
for this defence. He evidenced this most clearly in ad- 
dressing the Civilian Advisory Board on October 6, 1915- 
(Statement No. 43.) That he conceived of the possibil- 
ity of Germany as an active enemy of the United States 
was now evident. On October 11, 1915, he admitted 
that after all '' neutrality " was a negative word. He no 
longer asserted that the United States could not pass upon 
the merits of the controversy in Europe; rather he felt 
that the United States had assessed the merits, but stood 
apart to maintain certain principles which were grounded 
in law and justice. The United States could not enter 
such a conflict except upon its own terms and for its own 
purposes. (Statement No. 44.) 

On November 4, 191 5, the President spoke at great 

^ See editorial comment in American Journal of International Law, 

IX, 935. 



78 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

length before the Manhattan Club of New York City. 
{Statement No. 46.) " We are thinking now chiefly of 
our relations with the rest of the world, not our commer- 
mercial relations — about those we have thoug^ht and 
planned always — but about our political relations, our 
duties as an individual and independent force in the 
world to ourselves, our neighbors, and the world itself." 
This is the second indication that the President was 
willing to contemplate an actual participation by the 
United States in a readjustment of international relations. 
His method of approach is familiar to those who have 
followed the narrative of his previous utterances upon 
Pan-American affairs. It was clear to him that Ameri- 
can principles were well known. " It is not only to be 
free and prosperous ourselves, but also to be the friend 
and thoughtful partisan of those who are free or who de- 
sire freedom the world over. . . . We shall never in any 
circumstances seek to make an independent people sub- 
ject to our dominion ; because we believe, we passionately 
believe, in the right of every people to choose their own 
allegiance and be free of masters altogether." 

The important subject of his address was the question 
of defence. Here was voiced by the President for the 
first time the distinct fear of interference with the devel- 
opment of the United States as a nation. Men were ask- 
ing, said he, " how far we are prepared to maintain 
ourselves against any interference with our national ac- 
tion or development." Whatever augmented military 
power was obtained it was to be used for defence, not 



FREEDOM OF THE SEAS 79 

only of citizens and territory but of the ideals of the 
American people. It \ as to be for " the constant and 
legitimate uses of times of international peace." 

In the period from April to December of 191 5 the 
President had carried to a successful issue his diplo- 
matic controversy with Germany, as far as it related to 
the principles he was insisting upon. Specific cases were 
still in controversy, but against Germany as against Great 
Britain the record of protest was rigidly kept. Each 
successive utterance of the President revealed an in- 
creased emphasis upon the rights of neutrals and the 
need of international agreement and co-operation. From 
both groups of belligerents the administration asked an 
adherence to the rules of international law. Following 
the record of protest and the insistence that above all 
exigencies of war were the rights of humanity came the 
request to the American people that they provide an ade- 
quate means for making good the demands of the Ameri- 
can government on behalf of all mankind. 



CHAPTER V 
Preparation for Defence 

Purposes of Preparedness -f- A New Pan-American Program 
— Remaining Dangers to Neutral Rights — Armed Merchant- 
men as Auxiliary Cruisers — President's Defence of American 
Rights -^ New Difficulties in Mexico — Germany's Pledged 
Word Violated — Plostilities Averted but the Problem Un- 
solved — League of Nations to Enforce Peace as the Solution. 

The Sixty-Fourth Congress, elected in November, 
19 1 4, with a Democratic majority but without any man- 
date respecting the foreign policy of the government, 
assembled for its first session on December 7, 191 5. The 
President read his third annual message, and proposed 
officially what he had heretofore suggested unofficially, 
i.e., a program of immediate preparedness for national 
defence such as he had outlined in his address to the Man- 
hattan Chib. (Statement No. 4/.) But true to his pri- 
mary interest in the ends to be achieved, he feU that it was 
necessary again to make clear the aims of the United 
States toward which its augmented military power might 
be directed. The Great War, which had ** altered the 
whole face of international affairs," had thrust upon the 
United States problems of more serious import than 
any since the Civil War. 

With the grave possibilities of this fact for the future 
of his country in mind, the President attempted charac- 

80 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 81 

teristically to connect the program he was about to sug- 
gest with the traditional ideals and policy of the United 
States. Thus he began by pointing out that the Monroe 
Doctrine had been maintained in its full vigour not merely 
to protect the United States from the possibilities of in- 
terference with its own free development. Its purpose 
was also to afford the Latin American republics a like 
freedom. '' From the first," he said, " we have made 
common cause with all partisans of liberty on this side 
the sea, and have deemed it as important that our neigh- 
bours should be free from all outside domination as that 
we ourselves should be ; have set America aside as a whole 
for the uses of independent nations and political free- 
men." This conception of the Monroe Doctrine was con- 
cretely exemplified by the policy followed in Mexico since 

1913- 

But the President had a still wider horizon before him. 

Not only was the United States the friend of free national 
development in America, and its champion too ; it was 
preparing to be its champion elsewhere. " We resent," 
he declared, '* from whatever quarter it may come, the 
aggression we ourselves will not practise. . . . We do not 
confine our enthusiasm for individual liberty and free na- 
tional development to the incidents and movements of 
affairs which affect only ourselves. We feel it wherever 
there is a people that tries to walk in these difficult paths 
of independence and right." 

For its duties in maintaining such ideals as these the 
United States, in his opinion, could honourably and should 



82 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

speedily arm itself. Regarding war '* as a means of as- 
serting the rights of a people against aggression," the 
United States '' must be fitted to play the great role in 
the world," particularly in the western hemisphere, which 
its citizens " are qualified by principle and by chastened 
ambition to play." 

PAN-AMERICAN PROGRAM 

The President had emphasized in his message the 
increasing cordiality between North and South America. 
An opportunity was given again soon to further ce- 
ment this good will when the second Pan-American 
Scientific Congress met in Washington. Proposals pre- 
sented by Secretary Lansing to the South and Central 
American diplomats were the subject of an address by 
President Wilson on January 6, 1916. (Statement No. 
48.) After speaking generally on the desirability of 
friendliness and co-operation among all the American 
states, he emphasized the chief features of the adminis- 
tration's Pan-American program. These were that the 
various states were ( i ) to unite in guaranteeing to each 
other absolute political independence and territorial in- 
tegrity, and (2) to settle all disputes arising between 
them by investigation and arbitration. Admirable ma- 
chinery would thus have been provided for the main- 
tenance of the '' rights of nations " declared by the 
American Institute of International Law at its first con- 
vention held early in January, 1916.^ This declaration 

1 The American Institute of International Law was founded Octo- 
ber 12, 1912, for the purpose of instructing and strengthening pub- 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 83 

insisted upon the right of each state to protect itself, to 
develop itself without hindrance from other states, and 
to the equal respect of these rights by all other states. 

The Pan-American policy of the administration was 
not only in line with these proposals of the leading Ameri- 
can students of international relations, it was considerably 
in advance of it. While the Institute of International 
Law declared '' rights " the Department of State was 
working for practical methods to give those rights actual 
substance. More than this, it was urging the adoption of 
concrete measures for keeping the peace in the western 
hemisphere. The American proposals included the arbi- 
tration of all boundary disputes and the prohibition of the 
shipment of arms and munitions to revolutionists. These 
two prolific causes of war in South and Central America 
would thus have been eliminated. This program has 
yielded thus far no positive results.^ 

It might seem despite these declarations of principle 
that quite an opposite practice was being pursued by the 
Washington government. For at the same time that Sec- 
retary Lansing was making his proposals to South Amer- 

lic opinion, in the western hemisphere, regarding the wisdom of 
international justice. It is made up of representatives from socie- 
ties in each of the twenty-one American repubHcs. For the text of 
its " Declaration of the Rights of Nations " see American Journal 
of International Law, X, 124. 

1 April 13, 1916, a congress of American republics meeting in 
Buenos Aires created the Pan-American International High Com- 
mission, the functions of which are to work for the establishment for 
the Pan-American nations of uniform laws, particularly respecting 
business. The headquarters of the Commission were established at 
Washington. 



84 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

ica, the United States Senate had under consideration 
treaties with Haiti and Nicaragua, which apparently in- 
fringed on the sovereignty of these states. Under the 
treaty with Haiti ^ the United States assumed a protecto- 
rate over that repubhc. The territorial integrity and po- 
litical independence of Haiti were guaranteed by the 
United States which in turn took over control of its 
finances and police. Without specifically providing for 
it the treaty made it possible for the United States to as- 
sume complete direction of Haiti's foreign affairs should 
circumstances warrant it. 

The much discussed treaty with Nicaragua was ratified 
by the Senate February i8, 19 16, and by Nicaragua April 
I ith. It granted the United States an exclusive option on 
the Nicaragua canal route and a naval base in the Gulf of 
Fonseca in return for $3,000,000. This treaty differed 
from the proposals oft'ered in 191 3 ^ in that it did not seek 
to establish a protectorate over Nicaragua. 

1 The treaty with Haiti was signed September 16, 1915, ratified by 
the Haitian Congress November 12, 1915, and by the United States 
Senate February 25, 1916, The events of 1914 and 1915 which led 
the United States to propose such a treaty are set forth very briefly 
in The American Year Book for 1914, p. 115; ibid., for 1915, pp. 
129-130, See also C. L. Jones, Caribbean Interests of the United 
States, ch. ix. For text of the treaty see American Journal of In- 
ternational Law, X, Supplement, 234. 

^ Infra, p. 6, n. A similar treaty had been signed June 6, 191 1: 
Nicaragua ratified it, but the United States Senate did not. The 
treaty of February, 1913. was redrawn and submitted to the Senate 
July 20. 1913. In its final form it was submitted to the Senate 
August 12, 1913. See G. A. Finch, " The Treaty with Nicaragua 
Granting Canal and Other Rights to the United States," in American 
Journal of International Law, X, 344. For text of the treaty see 
ibid., X, Supplement, 258. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 85 

Whether the Wilson administration in its relations with 
countries bordering on the Caribbean Sea was conducting 
itself consistently with the spirit of its own declarations 
remains to be discussed in a later chapter.^ It can be 
pointed out here, however, that until the Lansing pro- 
posals were accepted, the obligations of the United States 
under the Monroe Doctrine and with respect to the Pan- 
ama Canal sufficiently account for these two treaties. 
And the Lansing proposals are themselves ample evidence 
of the desire of the administration to meet these responsi- 
bilities in a manner in keeping with its avowed purpose to 
respect the sovereignty of even the smallest states. 

THE ARMED MERCHANTMEN CONTROVERSY 

Meanwhile matters of vastly greater public interest 
were making insistent demands on the attention of the 
Department of State. Communications received early in 
January, 1916, from the Imperial German government 
indicated that it intended to fulfil the hope raised by its 
promises of September i, 191 5, and to accede to the 
other demands of the United States respecting subma- 
rine warfare. True, the liner Persia had been sunk in 
the Mediterranean on December 30, 191 5, and at least 
two American citizens had been lost. Germany, Austria- 
Hungary and Turkey all denied that their submarines 
were responsible for this loss, and indeed no evidence was 
found which could establish their responsibility. But, 
according to the memorandum delivered by the German 

1 Infra, ch. VI, p. 116. 



86 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

ambassador to the Secretary of State, January 7, 1916, if 
a German submarine had by inadvertence unlawfully 
sunk the Persia, the necessary amends would have been 
made. This memorandum informed the United States 
that commanders of German submarines in the Mediter- 
ranean had been ordered to deal with enemy merchant 
vessels in that area as the rules of naval warfare re- 
quired, and promised that disobedience of this order 
would be followed by punishment of the guilty officers 
and reparation for damages to American citizens. The 
Persia was specifically mentioned as a case in point, 
provided it were shown that it had been sunk by a German 
submarine. It is of course true, as earlier American 
protests had emphasized, that there is no adec^uate repara- 
tion for loss of life. However, this note is considerably 
more than a promise of reparation. It evidenced a pur- 
pose to recognize the rules of international law, at any 
rate in the Mediterranean Sea, and there is implied a 
disavowal in advance of any future unlawful acts of its 
naval officers. 

Moreover, there was other proof of apparent acquies- 
cence by Germany in American contentions. The Ger- 
man note on the case of the William P. Frye,^ dated 
November 29, 1915, was made public on January 8, 1916. 
This note, after arranging for indemnity and for arbitra- 
tion of disputed points, went on to pledge that, until the 
questions at issue were settled, " the German naval forces 
would sink only such American vessels as are loaded with 

^ Infra, p. 65. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 87 

absolute contraband, when the pre-conditions ^ provided 
by the Declaration of London are present." It was fur- 
ther admitted '' that all possible care must be taken for 
the security of the crew and passengers. ..." 

Two days later, January 10, 19 16, it was announced 
that the German ambassador at Washington had sub- 
mitted to his government for approval a definite settle- 
ment of the Litsitania case.^ This approval having been 
given, the settlement was offered the United States gov- 
ernment as a reply to its note of July 21, 1915. Though 
indemnity was offered, the United States refused to accept 
the German proposal because there was no admission 
that the sinking of the Liisitania was illegal. Subse- 
quently in supposed agreement with the desires of the 
United States the reply was altered, but it was not ac- 
cepted. 

It must be noted that Germany had not gone the whole 
length in meeting the American demands; there were to 
be limits to its observance of the rights of neutrals. The 
rules of international law were to be observed in the 
Mediterranean Sea presumably with respect to all ship- 
ping including that of the enemy. In other areas the rules 

1 These conditions are met if more than half the cargo of the 
neutral merchantman be contraband; if the cargo be destined to 
territory belonging to or occupied by the enemy, or to the armed 
forces of the enemy; and if capturing and taking the neutral mer- 
chantman into a port for condemnation as a prize would involve 
dangers to the warship or to the success of the operation in which 
it is engaged at the time. See Articles 30, 40 and 49 of the Dec- 
laration of London, American Journal of Internctional Law, III, 
Supplement, 179. 

2 Infra, p. 72. 



88 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

were to be followed only in cases involving American mer- 
chant vessels or passenger liners whether of American or 
other registry including those of the belligerents. There 
still remained other contingencies to be dealt with, among 
them that involving armed merchantmen of the enemies 
of Germany. 

Great Britain had been permitting, apparently from the 
early days of the war, the arming of its merchant vessels. 
This it was undoubtedly privileged to do, under the here- 
tofore accepted principles of international law, where the 
purpose was the quite reasonable one of self-defence.^ 
But this right Germany denied.- Furthermore, Germany 
had claimed that English armed merchantmen had taken 
the offensive against German submarines, thereby beyond 
question divesting themselves of peaceful character.^ It 
followed that if some such vessels had used their arma- 
ments offensively others might do so, and thus the Ger- 
man submarine, to be effective at all in destroying enemy 
commerce, must treat all enemy merchantmen as if they 
were public armed vessels instead of private. In such 
circumstances guarantees of life to crews and passengers 

^ See A. P. Higgins, " Armed Merchant Ships," in American Jour- 
nal of International Law, VIII, 705; J. B. Scott, "Armed Merchant 
Ships," ibid., X, 113. 

2 In a note to the United States dated March i, 1915, the Ger- 
man government had conditioned a promise to restrict its use of 
submarines on the abstention by enemy merchantmen from using 
neutral flags and from arming themselves, declaring that the latter 
was contrary to international law. See Department of State, Dip- 
lomatic Correspondence, European War Series, No. i, p. 60, The 
same view is expressed in a German note dated October 15, 1914, 
ibid., No. 2, p. 45. 

3 See the German note of September 4, 1915, ibid., No. 3, p. 160. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 89 

disappeared entirely; and as American citizens had the 
ri^ht to travel on or take service in belligerent merchant- 
men with the expectation of safety of life, at least, some 
means had to be found of assuring that safety. 

The government of the United States endeavoured to 
solve the problem raised by the arming of merchantmen 
and the development of the submarine by asking the bel- 
ligerent powers to agree to a declaration of principles gov- 
erning the conduct of both submarines and merchantmen.^ 
On January 18, 19 16, Secretary Lansing presented to the 
governments of the Entente Allies, informally and confi- 
dentially, a definite proposal for a declaration, the chief 
features of which were that merchant vessels were not to 
be armed and in turn were not to be attacked without 
warning, nor to be fired upon except in case of resistance 
or flight, nor to be sunk until their nationality were deter- 
mined and their crews afforded a chance for safety. 
{Statement No, 49.) It need scarcely be pointed out 
that had these principles been adopted and adhered to the 
only really dangerous cause of future controversy between 
the United States and the warring powers would have 
been eliminated. Nearly all questions arising out of other 
causes could have been dealt with by arbitration. But 
since the proposal was in effect a request to the enemies of 
Germany to abandon a practice which, however inexpedi- 
ent and dangerous, was admittedly lawful,^ in return for 

1 This constitutes the administration's third attempt to induce 
the belligerents to agree on a method of conducting their naval war- 
fare which would protect neutral rights. See infra, p. 44 and p. 56. 

2 The Department of State had issued on September 19, 1914, a 



90 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

which Germany was to discontinue a method of warfare 
which was unquestionably unlawful, it was doubtless too 
much to expect that England and its allies could or would 
agree to it. 

It is unfortunate that the administration here seemed to 
abandon the ground which it took in the first Liisitania 
note, May 13, 191 5, i.e., that submarines could not possi- 
bly be used against commerce in accordance with practice 
sanctioned by international law.^ It is more unfortunate 
that the proposal of January 18, 19 16, had the appearance 
of being unneutral and of favouring Germany, especially 
in the unguarded suggestion contained in the last para- 
graph that the United States contemplated treating armed 
merchantmen as auxiliary cruisers. Nevertheless, it can 
be said in favour of the proposal as a whole that, like the 
two previous attempts to establish a modus Vivendi for the 
belligerents, it was an endeavour to render neutral rights 
on the high seas as safe as was humanly possible. But 
if Secretary Lansing's confidential suggestion were made 
public, as it was on January 28, 1916, and if Germany 
were to seek to take advantage of it, as Germany later 
did, all the future dealing of the United States with 
that power was bound to become more difficult. It 
would be hard to convince Germany that the United 
States government did not mean what it said; yet, if 

circular note in which it defined the status of armed merchant ves- 
sels, admitting their right to arm for defence without losing their 
peaceful character. Department of State, Diplomatic Correspond- 
ence, European War Series. No. 2, p. 43. 
1 Infra, Part III, Statement No. 36. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 91 

the United States did make good its threat to treat armed 
merchantmen as auxiliary cruisers it would be altering 
the rules in time of war. Since its whole case against 
both belligerents rested on its insistence that the rules 
could not be changed while the war was in progress, ex- 
cept by the acquiescence of all the nations concerned, it 
would have abandoned at one stroke all that it had so 
patiently worked for during the previous eighteen months. 
Perhaps the realization of this and the consequent fear 
of an approaching crisis moved President Wilson to his 
next step. Whatever the motive, he was induced to go be- 
fore the people near the end of January in furtherance of 
the request he had made in his message to Congress for 
military and naval preparedness. In a ten days' tour end- 
ing February 4, 1916, he addressed audiences in New 
York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Chicago, To- 
peka, Kansas City, Des Moines, St. Louis, and many 
smaller places. He became more emphatic as the tour 
progressed ; the keynote was not struck until he reached 
Cleveland. (Statement No. jO.) " We are daily tread- 
ing," he said, " amid the most intricate dangers, . . . 
dangers . . . not of our making . . . not under our con- 
trol, ... no man in the United States knows what a 
single week or a single day or a single hour may bring 
forth." He affirmed his deep consciousness of the " dou- 
ble obligation " laid upon him ; he was to keep the nation 
out of war and he was " to keep the honor of the nation 
unstained." There might come a time when it would be 
impossible to do both of these things. He assured his fel- 



92 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

low citizens that they could count upon his resolution to 
keep out of war, but where the actions of others might 
bring the nation could not be foretold. Thus he urged 
that the country support the government in adequate prep- 
aration for meeting whatever circumstances might arise. ^ 

That the preparedness program was well timed is evi- 
denced by the fact that on P^ebruary lo, 1916, Germany 
and Austria introduced a new danger into the situation 
by announcing that they would after P^bruary 29, 191 6, 
regard as warships armed merchant vessels of their 
enemies and would deal with them accordingly.^ In 
other words, submarine commanders would be instructed 
to sink without warning any such armed vessels, whether 
carrying passengers or not. 

It has been supposed that in making this new move the 
Central Powers were relying on the suggestion of threat 
against Great Britain contained in the last paragraph of 
Secretary Lansing's proposal of January 18, 19 16. But 
they had no ground for supposing that the United States 
would acquiesce in their decision to treat armed merchant- 
men as warships as long as the rules of warfare remained 
unchanged. Furthermore, if they really had been trying 
to act, as they professed, in a friendly manner toward 
the United States, the least that could have been expected 

1 These speeches were as widely discussed as any of President Wil- 
son's utterances up to that time. They were indeed vigorous, but it 
is unfortunate that as played up by the newspapers, they were made 10 
seem alarmist in the extreme. For an analysis of the significance of 
this speaking tour see R. Piean, " The President among the People," 
in The World's Work, XXI, 610. 

-Infra, p. 88. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 93 

of them was that before adopting a new policy they wait 
until some answer to the Lansing proposals had been 
received from England and its allies. If the Entente 
Powers should have accepted the American proposals 
there would have been no reason for a change in German 
policy. The truth seems to be that Germany deliberately 
tried to embarrass the efforts of the United States to safe- 
guard neutral rights, by making it impossible for its 
enemies to accept the modifications in international law 
which in turn would have made it possible for Germany, 
according to its own contention, to conduct its subma- 
rine campaign in a sufficiently lawful manner.^ In any 
event, in view of the correspondence between the United 
States and Germany, the government of the latter coun- 
try had no reason to expect that the Wilson administra- 
tion would voluntarily consent either to an actual curtail- 
ment of the rights of neutrals or to a change in the laws of 
naval warfare until all interested nations had agreed to it. 
Following the publication of the announcement of Ger- 
many and Austria occurred a remarkable debate in Con- 
gress, which, precipitated by some Republican members 
who criticized the President on the unwarranted assump- 
tion that he would acquiesce in the German program, 
finally revealed itself as an attack on the policy of the 
President from his own party on grounds of the opposite 
character. Resolutions introduced by Thomas P. Gore, 
of Oklahoma, in the Senate, and Jeff McLemore, of 

1 See the German notes of October 15, 1914, March i and Sep- 
tember 4, 1915, referred to in the note on p. 88, iiifra. 



94 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

Texas, in the House of Representatives, were designed to 
prohibit American citizens from travelHng on armed mer- 
chantmen.^ But the President did not beheve that such 
resolutions should be adopted. He addressed to Senator 
Stone a letter, on February 24, 191 6, which discovered to 
the surprised leaders of both parties how inaccurately they 
had gauged the President's temper and courage, as well as 
his conception of his duty in safeguarding the rights of 
citizens of the United States and in the maintenance of 
international obligations. (Statement No. 5/.) 

He reaffirmed his purpose to keep the United States out 
of war if possible. But for his part he could not " con- 
sent ^ to any abridgement of the rights of American citi- 
zens in any respect." " Once accept a single abatement 
of right," he went on to point out, " and many other hu- 
miliations would certainly follow, and the whole fine 
fabric of international law might crumble under our hands 
piece by piece. What we are contending for in this mat- 
ter is the very essence of the things that have made Amer- 
ica a sovereign nation. She can not yield them without 
conceding her own impotency as a nation and making vir- 
tual surrender of her independent position among the 
nations of the world." ^ 

1 For the text of the Gore and McLemore resolutions see the 
New York Times, March 4, 1916. Secretary Bryan made proposals 
similar to these June 10, 1915 ; see American Journal of International 
Law, IX, 661. 

- Note that there had been no " consent " to interference by Great 
Britain, notwithstanding the many allegations to that effect by critics 
of the administration. 

3 The Gore and McLemore resolutions were defeated. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 95 

Of identical import was his address before the Grid- 
iron Club, Washington, February 26, 19 16. (Statement 
No. 52.) He asserted that American policy must be 
based " upon a profound principle of human liberty 
and humanity," not upon expediency; that "America 
ought to keep out of this war ... at the sacrifice of 
everything except this single thing upon which her char- 
acter and history are founded, her sense of humanity and 
justice"; that *' if she sacrifices that, she has ceased to 
be America " ; that it was a mistake to suppose that it 
was in accord with the spirit of the American nation 
that it would " go about seeking safety at the expense 
of humanity." Plainly the President was preparing his 
countrymen for the arrival of the day when, having ex- 
hausted the resources of patience and tolerance and 
friendliness, they must resort to their might to dispose 
of a foe to humanity and justice. 



MEXICO 

While relations with Europe were thus in such a crit- 
ical situation, events in Mexico which the President could 
not control were increasing the dif^culties of the United 
States government in maintaining its policy. Some of 
the incidents on the border, like the massacre of a party 
of American mining men at Santa Ysabel, Chihuahua, 
on January 10, 191 6, were of extremely grave character. 
Nevertheless, the Department of State contented itself 
with merely insisting to the Mexican government that 



96 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

order must be maintained and satisfaction given for 
wrongs against American citizens. 

But on March 8, 191 6, a force of Mexicans led by Gen- 
eral Villa attacked the town of Columbus, New Mexico, 
and killed seventeen persons. This invasion of American 
territory and the cold-blooded murder of American citi- 
zens led to drastic measures. On the day of the attack 
the President ordered Major-General Frederick Funston 
to prepare to pursue and, if possible, capture the Villa 
band. The punitive expedition, under the immediate 
command of Brigadier-General John J. Pershing, after a 
month in Mexico without accomplishing its object, began 
to encounter the opposition of the government of General 
Carranza, notwithstanding that he had on March loth 
consented that American troops might pursue bandits in 
Mexican territory.^ 

The administration was embarrassed in its patient ef- 
forts to deal with Carranza by the activities of citizens of 
the United States in spreading reports calculated to in- 
flame public opinion on both sides of the boundary. The 
President attempted to meet this danger by issuing from 
the White House, March 25, 1916, a public statement in 
which, after reasserting the purpose of the Pershing ex- 
pedition, he declared that " sinister and unscrupulous in- 
fluences " were at work ; that all along the border persons 

1 For accounts of these events see J. B. Scott: "The American- 
Mexican Joint Commission of 1916," in American Journal of Inter- 
national Lazi.', X, 890; G. A. Finch, "Mexico and the United States,"' 
ibid., XI, 399. The notes which passed between the Department of 
State and the Mexican Fpreign Secretary are published in the 
American Journal of International Law, X, Supplement, 179-225. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 97 

were actively engaged in spreading sensational and dis- 
turbing rumours in order to increase friction between the 
United States and Mexico " for the purpose of bringing 
about intervention in the interest of certain American 
owners of Mexican properties." (Statement No. 33.) 
He served notice on such persons that their object could 
not be attained so long as a " sane and honourable " policy 
were followed by the United States government. 

CONTROVERSY WITH GREAT BRITAIN 

Coincident with the increase in Mexico of the suspicion 
and distrust which were to make the path of peace so hard 
a one in the next few months, the relations of the United 
States with the warring powers in Europe became laden 
with more dangers day by day. On March 24, 191 6, the 
State Department announced the receipt of a note ^ from 
the Entente Allies rejecting the Lansing proposals regard- 
ing armed merchantmen. The administration, accepting 
this decision as final, adopted a new method of dealing 
with the situation. In a memorandum dated March 25 
(made public April 26) it announced its attitude toward 
the status of armed merchantmen, which was, briefly, that 
a merchant ship of a belligerent power armed for offence 
whose papers directed it to adopt offensive measures 
against enemy warships was to be regarded as having 
lost its character as a peaceful trading vessel and might 
be treated as a warship. (Statement No. 54.) But in 

1 For text of this reply see Department of State, Diplomatic Cor- 
respondence, European War Series, No. 3, p. 187. 



98 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

order to justify sinking such a vessel the burden was on 
the enemy warship to discover conclusive evidence of 
the merchantman's aggressive purpose. This interpre- 
tation was the greatest concession the United States could 
make to Germany and still insist on adherence to the ex- 
isting rules. 

Another matter of dispute with the allied nations arose 
out of the practice, inaugurated in December, 191 5, by 
England, of interfering with the mails between the L^nited 
States and Holland and the Scandinavian states. This 
practice was also followed by France, and was justified by 
both governments on the ground that contraband rules 
were being violated through the agency of the parcel post. 
While examination of mails to determine whether they 
contain contraband is permissible, the means used by Eng- 
land were not sanctioned by principle or usage. ^ Vigor- 
ous protest by the Department of State on January 4, 
19 1 6, elicited a reply from the Allies dated April 3, 19 16, 
which, while admitting the soundness of the American 
contention, offered a pragmatic justification and promised 
to respect the inviolability of '' genuine correspondence." 
Nevertheless, the interference continued and eventually 
led to further exchange of notes, the administration ad- 
hering to the policy it had followed from the first, i.e., 
while demanding to the fullest extent its property rights, 

1 Removal of mails from the vessels in which they were carried, 
and seizure of neutral vessels to bring them into a belligerent port 
for the purpose of removing the mails and even of subjecting them 
to censorship constituted an unwarranted extension of belligerent 
privileges in this matter. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 99 

to record the American claims against the belligerents 
for invasion of such rights and to await the coming of 
peace for legal settlement of its claims.^ 

CRISIS IN RELATIONS WITH GERMANY 

Meanwhile relations with Germany were subjected to a 
new strain when the news came of the sinking by a sub- 
marine on March 24, 19 16, of the unarmed French chan- 
nel steamer Sussex, w^ith the loss of lives of American 
citizens. The evidence ^ accumulated by the Department 
of State indicated beyond all doubt that Germany was 
again guilty of gross violation not only of the principles 
of international law but of its own promises made Sep- 
tember I, 1915.^ In these circumstances there was only 
one course to pursue. 

President Wilson hinted that this new crisis was ex- 
tremely serious in his address April 17, 19 16, to the 
Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington. 
(Statement No. ^^.) He was speaking of American tra- 
ditions but had his immediate problem in mind when he 
said : " America will have forgotten her traditions when- 
ever upon any occasion she fights merely for herself under 
such circumstances as will show that she has forgotten to 

* The correspondence regarding interference with mails is pub- 
lished in Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, Euro- 
pean War Series, No. 3, Part V. 

2 In reply to inquiry by the United States government Germany 
admitted the sinking without warning by one of its submarines, at 
the time and place indicated in the news item, of a vessel which it 
believed, however, was not the Sussex. See Department of State, 
Diplomatic Correspondence, European War Series, No. 3, p. 238. 

3 Infra, p. 72. 



100 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

fight for all mankind. And the only excuse that America 
can ever have for the assertion of her physical force is 
that she asserts it in behalf of the interests of humanity." 
He also felt the need of reminding the American people 
that it should not go to war out of mere selfishness in the 
assertion of its own rights as a nation. If there were to 
be war, as some were thinking and saying, it must be for 
a higher purpose, — a purpose bound up with the welfare 
of all mankind. 

This attitude is maintained in the note dispatched to 
Germany April 19, 1916.^ {Statement No. ^6.) True, 
the rights and grievances of the United States are set 
forth with emphasis, and the impressive catalogue of un- 
lawful acts on the part of German submarine commanders 
indicates that the case of the Sussex was not the cause of 
the final decision of the United States, but furnished the 
occasion for it.^ The note recited that the government at 

1 The note is dated April 18, 1916, and was received in Berlin, 
April 20, 1916. 

2 From the date of the sinking of the Persia to April 18, 1916, the 
following cases of sinkings by German submarines which involved 
Americans are known : Norwegian bark, Silius, seven Americans 
aboard, sunk without warning March g, 1916; Dutch liner Tubantia, 
several American passengers, sunk March 16, 1916; British steamer 
Beru'indvale, four Americans aboard, sunk March 16, 1916; the Sus- 
sex, March 24, 1916; British steamer. Englishman, several Americans 
aboard, one reported lost, sunk March 24, 1916; British steamer 
Manchester Engineer, two Americans aboard, sunk without warning 
March 27, 1916; British steamer Eagle Point, one American aboard, 
sunk without warning March 29, 1916. Besides these the Italian 
steamer Brindisi was sunk by a mine, January 6, 1916 ; 242 lives lost, 
including one American. Other unwarranted sinkings not involv- 
ing Americans were: British steamer Clan MacFarlane, December 
30, 1915 : British liner Zcnt, April 5. 1916; British liner Chantala, 
April 8, 1916; Spanish steamer Santanderino, April 10, 1916. Lives 
were lost in each of these four sinkings. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE loi 

A^ashington had been indeed very patient ; that its " senti- 
nents of very genuine friendship for the people and Gov- 
irnment of Germany " had led it to hope that the latter 
vould '' square its policy with the recognized principles of 
lumanity as embodied in the law of nations " ; that never- 
heless the " inhumanity of submarine warfare " as con- 
lucted by German commanders had become more appall- 
ng; that it had become " painfully evident " that " the use 
)f submarines for the destruction of an enemy's commerce 
s, of necessity, because of the very character of the 
vessels employed and the very methods of attack which 
;heir employment of course involves, utterly incompati- 
ble with the principles of humanity, the long-established 
md incontrovertible rights of neutrals, and the sacred 
immunities of non combatants";^ that if the German 
government still purposed to conduct the war without 
-egard to " the universally recognized dictates of human- 
ity " there remained but one course open to the United 
States, namely, " to sever diplomatic relations with the 
German Empire altogether " ; and that however reluctant 
the United States government w'as to contemplate this 
action it would feel constrained to take it " in behalf of 
humanity and the rights of neutral nations." 

And when the President emphasized the grave dangers 
in the situation by laying the Sussex note before a joint 
session of Congress on the same day, April 19, 1916, his 
address only repeated the sense of the note itself. (Statc- 

■^ The government of the United States here resumed the position 
it took in its first Lusitania note. Infra, p. 72. 



102 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

ment No. ^y.) " We cannot forget," he said, " that we 
are in some sort and by the force of circumstances the 
responsible spokesmen of the rights of humanity, and that 
we cannot remain silent while those rights seem in process 
of being swept utterly away in the maelstrom of this terri- 
ble war. We owe it to a due regard for our own rights 
as a nation, to our sense of duty as a representative of the 
rights of neutrals the world over, and to a just conception 
of the rights of mankind to take this stand now with the 
utmost solemnity and firmness." 

The tremendous importance of the Sussex case arises 
partly from the way in which it was handled. As an out- 
rage against humanity and neutral rights it was vastly less 
in degree than the sinking of the Lusitania. Not only 
were fewer lives lost but the element of cold-biooded delil)- 
eration seems to have been lacking. However, the princi- 
ples involved in the two cases were the same and the Presi- 
dent of the United States took the same standpoint in 
addressing the German Government, i.e., the rights of hu- 
manity. But Germany had violated its pledged word, 
and therefore an ultimatum was delivered. If Germany 
should not accept the American view or, having accepted 
it, should fail again to fulfil its promises, there must neces- 
sarily follow the severance of diplomatic relations and 
the possibility of war. None of the Lusitania notes 
amounted to an ultimatum, and the United States was 
not as near to war in 191 5 as it was a year later. But 
the statements official and otherwise made by the Presi- 
dent and the Secretary of State in the Lusitania and 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 103 

Sussex cases must be regarded as paving the road to 
the high ground on which President Wilson was to stand 
some day in the future when the United States would 
find itself actually faced with war. If he were to lead 
his country into the European conflict it would be for 
some cause immeasurably greater than the vindication of 
the rights of the United States and of its citizens. 

Fortunately the German reply,^ dated ^^lay 4, 1916, was 
capable of such interpretation as to be acceptable to the 
United States government. Later, May 8th, formal apol- 
ogy and reparation were offered. Germany, however, 
tried to condition its promise to conduct submarine war- 
fare against merchant vessels according to the principles 
of international law on the cessation by Great Britain 
of alleged unlawful methods of warfare. At this time, 
as well as at other times, the German government took 
the position that a neutral nation, in order to vindicate 
its rights as a neutral and thus to prove its neutrality, 
must do more than simply protest against violation of 
its rights, and therefore that the United States, because it 

1 The German reply promised to " draw " the appropriate " con- 
sequences " if the German investigation of the Sussex case supported 
the American claim, and announced that no more merchant ships 
would be sunk " without warning and without saving human lives." 
It was expected that the United States would in return insist that 
Great Britain observe the rules of international law, and the Ger- 
man promise for the future was explicitly conditioned in the fol- 
lowing words: "Should steps taken by the Government of the 
United States not attain the object it desires to have the laws of 
humanity followed by all belligerent nations, the German Government 
would then be facing a new situation, in which it must reserve it- 
self complete liberty of action." See Department of State, Diplo- 
matic Correspondence, European War Series, No. 3, pp. 302-306. 



104 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

refused to use force or even retaliatory measures against 
Great Britain, was guilty of a breach of neutrality in 
spite of its protests. The German view was that failure 
to supplement the protests with more effective measures 
proved the acquiescence of the United States in the illegal 
interference with neutral commerce by Great Britain. 
The German foreign office did not seem able to grasp two 
very plain facts. On the one hand, without exception, 
every item in the controversy with Great Britain was of 
a justiciable nature; there was nothing in dispute that 
could not be arbitrated, and the United States was bound 
by its treaty with Great Britain to arbitrate such mat- 
ters. On the other hand, whether the matters involved 
could be settled peaceably or not, the controversy between 
the United States and Great Britain and the one between 
the United States and the German Empire were two 
entirely different controversies, which not only could 
have been but should have been dealt with without refer- 
ence to each other. 

Another note was therefore necessary to make it plain 
that the United States held Germany singly, absolutely 
and unconditionally responsible for the acts of German 
naval officers. (Statement No. ^8.) This was appar- 
ently accepted by Germany ; at any rate, for a few months 
there seemed to be an abatement of the submarine cam- 
paign as it affected neutrals. Nevertheless, in the absence 
of formal assurance by .Germany it was to be assumed 
that it still adhered to its position. The problem re- 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 105 

mained an unsolved one, and as such was an ever present 
source of danger.^ 

MEXICO 

In the lull between this crisis in the relations with 
Germany and the next crisis in the relations with ]\Iex- 
ico, the President talked before the National Press Club 
at Washington May 15, 1916. (Statement No. 59.) 
He again declared the necessity for the United States 
to keep out of war, but he again revealed his apprehen- 
sion by emphasizing that " in foreign affairs the chief 
element is where action is going on in other quarters 
of the world and not where thought is going in the 
United States." He was still thinking, as were thousands 
of his countrymen, along the lines expressed in his 
" preparedness " speeches — the actions of other peoples 
might force the United States from the ways of peace. ^ 

Unfriendly action from another people came next from 
across the southern boundary of the United States. There 
was an increase in the hostility of the Mexican people and 
government toward the maintenance of an American force 
in Mexico. Conferences between General Carranza's 
Minister of War Obregon and Generals Scott and Fun- 
ston during late April and early May did not relieve the 

1 Infra, p. 126 for the renewal in October, 1916, of German sub- 
marine warfare. 

- For a summary of the attitude of official Washington in the spring 
of IQ16 see F. M. Davenport, " President Wilson's Foreign Policy," 
Outlook, CXIII, 142 (May 17, 1916). 



io6 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

tension, which approached the breaking point on Alay 22, 
1916. On that day Carranza, in an exceedingly ill-tem- 
pered communication to the Department of State, charac- 
terized the punitive expedition as '' an invasion without 
Mexico's consent, without its knowledge, and without the 
co-operation of its authorities," and demanded the imme- 
diate withdrawal of General Pershing's troops. The 
United States answer, dated June 20, 1916, declined to 
accede to Carranza's demand as long as the American 
forces in Mexico constituted " the only check upon further 
bandit outrages." At the same time the representatives 
at Washington of the Latin-American republics were ad- 
vised of this action, and informed that should hostilities 
eventuate the object of the Ignited States would be " not 
intervention in Mexican affairs . . . but the defence of 
American territory from further invasion by armed 
Mexicans." ^ 

Next day, June 21, 191 6, at Carrizal an attack by Car- 
ranza's troops upon a detachment of United States cavalry 
resulted in the capture of some of the latter. This act 
and a bellicose note from Carranza June 24, 1916. elicited 
from the Secretary of State a demand (dated June 25, 
1916) for the release of the prisoners and a definite state- 
ment as to the Mexican government's purposes. The pris- 
oners were immediately released and on July 4, 19 16, sev- 
eral governments of South and Central America as well as 
that of Spain having meanwhile offered mediation, Car- 

1 For the correspondence referred to in this and the succeeding 
paragraph see American Journal of International Lazv, X, Supple- 
ment, 179-225. 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 107 

ranza proposed that the offer of mediation be accepted. 
The American reply was a suggestion for conferences to 
arrange for a settlement, which, having been accepted, a 
joint commission was decided upon July 28, 19 16. 
Again a peaceful way out of the Mexican trouble was 
sought, and this in spite of the extremity of the situation 
and the vociferous demands in some parts of the United 
States for armed intervention. 

PROGRAM OF THE PRESIDENT 

During the latter part of May President Wilson deliv- 
ered two addresses that revealed how far his thought had 
moved during the past year. Before the League to En- 
force Peace, May 27, 1916, he advocated, for the first 
time in concrete terms and wholly without reserve, what 
he had hinted ever since the spring of 191 5, — the perma- 
nent participation of the United States in world affairs. 
(Statement No. 60.) It came upon the country as a 
shock to find its president apparently abandoning the tra- 
ditional policy of aloofness and isolation which had for 
its entire history characterized the attitude of the United 
States in international matters which did not concern its 
interests at home, in the western hemisphere, or in the 
Far East. 

" We are participants," President Wilson said, 
" whether we would or not, in the life of the world. The 
interests of all nations are our own also. . . . What af- 
fects mankind is inevitably our affair as well as the affair 
of the nations of Europe and of Asia. . . . Henceforth 



io8 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

. . . there must be a common agreement for a common 
object, and ... at the heart of that common object must 
He the inviolable rights of peoples and mankind. . . . We 
believe these fundamental things : First, that every peo- 
ple has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they 
shall li\ e. . . . Second, that the small states of the world 
have a right to enjoy the same respect for their sover- 
eignty and for their territorial integrity that great and 
powerful nations expect and insist upon. And, third, 
that the world has a right to be free from every disturb- 
ance of its peace that has its origin in aggression and dis- 
regard of the rights of peoples and nations." 

With this statement of aims the President went on to 
give expression to his belief regarding the means to attain 
them, lie was convinced that there should be "an uni- 
versal association of nations to maintain the inviolate 
security of the highway of the seas for the common and 
unhindered use of all the nations of the world, and to 
prevent any war begun either contrary to treaty covenant 
or without warning and full submission of the causes to 
the opinion of the world, — a virtual guarantee of terri- 
torial integrity and political independence." And he ven- 
tured to assert, with full consciousness of his position as 
spokesman for his people as well as for his government, 
" that the L'nited States is willing to become a partner in 
any feasible association of nations formed in order to real- 
ize these objects and make them secure against violation." 
If the President were to be forced into a war, by the neces- 



PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE 109 

sity to defend the freedom of the seas, the great purpose 
to be achieved had at last become clear. 

On Memorial Day, 191 6, at Arlington National 
Cemetery, the President came back to the same theme in 
answer to criticism which had recalled with emphatic 
approval Washington's warning ^ against *' entangling 
alliances." (Statement N^o. 61.) He said: "I shall 
never myself consent to an entangling alliance, but I 
would gladly assent to a disentangling alliance — an al- 
liance which would disentangle the peoples of the world 
from those combinations in which they seek their own 
separate and private interests and unite the people of the 
world to preserve the peace of the world upon a basis of 
common right and justice. There is liberty there, not 
limitation. There is freedom, not entanglement. There 
is achievement of the highest things for which the United 
States has declared its principle.'' And he reaffirmed his 
belief " that the people of the United States were ready 
to become partners in an\- alliance of the nations that 
would guarantee public right above selfish aggression." 

During these six months, December, 1915, to June, 
1916, President Wilson advanced the first half of his pre- 
paredness program, — the military half, the strengthening 
of the army and navy of the United States. Doubtless he 
regarded other kinds of preparedness as of even greater 

1 Washington's advice had been used before in criticism of Wilson 
at the time of the " A. B. C." mediation in Mexico. Infa, p. 2)7- 



110 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

importance, but he did something in behalf of an increase 
in American military power which he had done for no 
other of his policies, — he left his desk and appeared on 
the platform to emphasize this great need before the 
nation. Just how great the necessity was appeared when 
the administration faced the two most difficult crises in 
foreign relations it had yet met, one with Germany and 
one with Mexico. Both of these crises were settled by 
peaceful means before the year was out, but not without 
revealing the precariousness of the position of the United 
States in such a greatly disordered world. Perhaps it was 
the painful realization of the futility of the use of diplo- 
macy not backed by force and the utter abhorrence of the 
use of naked military power alone to make secure national 
rights that induced the President to seek a new sanction 
for international law in a league of nations. In the be- 
ginning of the period, in December, he proposed to the 
states of the new world an association to eliminate the 
causes of strife among themselves by guaranteeing their 
mutual independence and integrity. At the end of the 
period in May he publicly advocated that the United 
States enter a confederation of the world to keep the peace 
of the world. 



CHAPTER VI 
Formulation of the Issue 

New Conception of the Position of the United States in the 
World — Opportunities and Obstacles V Treatment of Mexico 
— Preparedness in the Caribbean — Redeeming Promises in 
the Philippines — Controlling Spirit of Wilson's Foreign 
Policy — America's Chance to Serve the World — Founda- 
tions of Peace and Forces Endangering it — The Ends for 
which the United States Will Fight — Need for Defining the 
Purposes of the Great War — An International Confederation 
for International Peace. 

The note which President Wilson struck with such 
certainty and emphasis in his League to Enforce Peace 
speech, continued to be the keynote of his public addresses 
during the remainder of the year. Fie let pass no oppor- 
tunity to remind the people of the United States of the 
lofty principles for which the United States stood and its 
mission as the guardian of those principles, and to hint 
that in the discharge of this duty to mankind, a duty 
which other nations had abandoned, the United States 
ought to be ready to play a high part wdienever it became 
necessary. Even in the purely political speeches de- 
livered in the latter part of the campaign for the presi- 
dency, whether or not his main theme were foreign af- 
fairs, the President rarely failed to emphasize that the 
United States was intended to serve mankind and should 

III 



112 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

shape all its policy to that end. He was making his 
countrymen see the necessity they were under of taking 
a new view as to the place of the United States in the 
world. 

In the address delivered June 13, 19 16, to the cadets 
graduating from West Point all the lines of the Presi- 
dent's thought respecting the foreign policy of the United 
States were brought to a focus. {Statement No. 62.) 
He spoke significantly of the prospects before these new 
officers of the United States army. Theirs was to be, 
perhaps, a service much different from the dull routine of 
life in a Western army post. Of course, the future of the 
world could not be foreseen, but whatever it should be the 
United States was to have a share in it. At the least, 
though it wanted nothing for itself " that it has to get by 
war," the United States was obliged to " see that its life 
is not interfered with by anybody else who wants some- 
thing." That great free commonwealth compounded by 
all the peoples of the world out of their hopes for the 
future of mankind had to be prepared to make itself and 
its ideals safe, for it carries the *' guiding lights of liberty 
and principle and justice " for the world. The United 
States was not only a spiritual partner with the other 
states of the western hemisphere ; it stood ready to swing 
** into the field of action whenever liberty and independ- 
ence and political integrity are threatened anywhere in the 
Western Hemisphere." But the United States would do 
more. The American people was ready, so the President 
thought, to join with the other nations of the world in see- 



FORMULATION OF THE ISSUE 113 

ing that the kind of justice it believed in prevailed every- 
where in the world. A note of warning as to the future, 
a call to the service of high ideals, a pledging of the United 
States to play an unselfish part in the councils of a better 
ordered world — this was the message of the President 
to these young soldiers and to his fellow citizens as well. 

MEX ICO 

The events in Mexico previously related, — the battle of 
Carrizal, the peremptory demands for the release of the 
American soldiers, the renewed negotiations for the settle- 
ment of difficulties,^ — occurred before President Wilson 
again had occasion to speak. The country was in no tem- 
per to listen to words of moderation, but the President, 
before the Associated Advertising Clubs, at Philadelphia 
on June 29, 19 16, administered a rebuke to those who 
were advocating actual conquest in Mexico, when he 
asserted that '* at whatever cost America should be just 
to other peoples and treat other peoples as she demands 
that they should treat her. She has a right to demand 
that they treat her with justice and respect, and she has 
a right to insist that they treat her in that fashion, but 
she cannot with dignity or self-respect insist upon that 
unless she is willing to act in the same fashion toward 
them." (Statement No. 63.) And the President added, 
" That I am ready to fight for at any cost to myself." 

Doubtless he was keenly aware that it was costing him 
a great deal in current reputation to maintain this attitude 

1 Infra, p. 106. 



114 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

toward Mexico, but he was even more emphatic when ad- 
dressing the Press Club, at New York, the next day, June 
30, 1916. (Statement No. 64.) He was of course fully 
cognizant of the duty of the government to defend the ter- 
ritory and people of the United States. " It goes without 
saying," he said, '* that it is the duty of the administra- 
tion to have constantly in mind with the utmost sensi- 
tiveness every point of national honor." But he was 
not convinced that it was the duty of the administration 
to intervene in the affairs of another people by force, for 
*' force had never accomplished anything that was 
permanent." He pointed out that the permanent things 
are accomplished afterwards *' when the opinion of man- 
kind is brought to bear upon the issues." He knew that 
the easiest thing was to strike, but he thought that striking 
was no way to conserve the honour of the nation, no 
matter what else might thus be conserved. 

It was after these speeches were delivered that events 
took a different turn in Mexico ; General Carranza adopted 
a conciliatory attitude and a peaceful settlement of the 
controversy was made possible. The President had ap- 
plied in this case the general principles which actuated him 
in other cases, and which he was to continue to emphasize 
at this time — principles of justice and fairness. On 
July 4, 1916, at the dedication of the new headquarters of 
the American Federation of Labour in Washington, while 
speaking of the necessity for " common counsel and com- 
mon understanding " among the people of the United 
States in their own affairs, he reverted to the ideas in the 



FORMULATION OF THE ISSUE 115 

"orefront of his thought. (Statement No. dj.) Amer- 
ca is great on account of its ideals of freedom and jus- 
ice; therefore he said, " no man ought to suffer injustice 
n America. No man ought in America to fail to see the 
lictates of humanity." 

The next week at Detroit, when on July 10, 191 6, he 
iddressed the Salesmanship Congress in a speech which 
lealt mostly with the possibilities of American trade ex- 
pansion, he could not help referring not only to the situa- 
;ion in Mexico but to the possibilities of the future of the 
A^orld. (Statement No. 66.) He declared that it would 
lave brought no good to have forced Mexico ; that the way 
For the United States to serve itself and the rest of Amer- 
ca in Mexico was to try to serve Mexico itself; that the 
sovereignty of Mexico must be respected ; that there must 
De respect for the right of its people " to do anything they 
Dlease with their own country and their own govern- 
ment " ; that the United States must look well to the spirit 
in which it was to undertake new responsibilities in the 
world; that the United States must play a great part in 
the world whether it chooses it or not ; that it must, for 
example, finance the world, and for it must have a broad 
vision and an understanding of the world, 

THE CARIBBEAN POLICY 

In July and August the Department of State was con- 
cerned chiefly in conducting the negotiations with Mex- 
ico,^ and in keeping the record clear for a future settle- 

1 The commission provided for in June was appointed in August 



ii6 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

ment of the account of the United States against Great 
Britain.^ Since there was no change of poHcy involved 
in deaUng with these matters nothing is gained by dis- 
cussing them. Of true significance, however, was the 
further development of the administration's practice in 
its dealings with the countries bordering on the Carib- 
bean Sea. 

It is not clear that the attitude of the Wilson govern- 
ment toward those states had ever been greatly different 
from that of its predecessors, except with regard to 
Colombia, Venezuela, and some of the Central American 
states. The United States was under treaty obligations 
to maintain order in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and 
Panama ; the administration could not be expected to neg- 
lect its duties even if it did not appro\e of these treaties. 
Indeed, during the entire summer and autumn of 19 16 
United States marines had been in occupancy of various 
parts of the Dominican Republic for the purpose of pre- 
serving order and protecting property.^ Moreover, the 
treaty with Haiti is doubtless evidence that, whether the 

and began its sessions September 6th. A protocol was signed No- 
vember 24, providing for the withdrawal of American troops within 
40 days after ratification. December 28th Carranza finally refused to 
accept the terms of the agreement. 

1 The particular grievances of the United States at this time were 
the extension of the doctrine of contraband, the "blacklisting" of 
American firms with which British subjects were forbidden to trade, 
the interference with the mails, and the misuse of censorship. 

~ On November 29, 1916, military occupation of the Dominican 
Republic was proclaimed by Captain Knapp of the United States 
Navy. Military government was established under control of United 
States officers and was maintained throughout the succeeding months. 



FORMULATION OF THE ISSUE 117 

administration approved of the previous American policy 
in that part of the world or not, it felt constrained to fol- 
low it. 

That policy apparently comprehends three elements: 
(i) The Monroe Doctrine, as interpreted for a quarter 
of a century by preceding administrations, seemed to im- 
pose upon the United States the responsibility of compel- 
ling the small states of the western hemisphere at least to 
meet their international obligations. (2) The prepon- 
derance of American interest in the industry and trade of 
all the countries adjacent to the Caribbean Sea, seemed to 
require the United States to pay a great deal of attention 
to the maintenance of stable governments in those coun- 
tries. (3) The obligations of the United States respect- 
ing the Panama Canal seemed to force it to forestall any 
possible chance of interference by other powers with its 
control of the canal. Apparently all three of these ele- 
ments are present in the relations of the United States 
with Cuba, and in the case of the Haitian protectorate.^ 

But neither the Monroe Doctrine, by any interpretation, 
nor the trade interests of the United States obliged it to 
buy the Danish West Indies.^ The consummation of this 
transfer, after years of effort, may be regarded as a 

1 For a satisfactory discussion of this whole subject see C. L. 
Jones, Caribbean Interests of the United States (1916). 

^The treaty with Denmark for the purchase of those islands was 
signed August 4, 1916, was ratified by the United States, September 
7, 1916. and by Denmark, December 22, 1916. A plebiscite in Den- 
mark on December 14, 1916, resulted in favour of the sale by a large 
majority. The text of this treaty is published in American Journal 
of International Law, XI, Supplement, 53. 



ii8 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

step in the administration's preparedness program. The 
islands constitute an important Hnk in the chain of defence 
for the Panama Canal. By taking them and by estab- 
lishing a protectorate over Haiti the United States effec- 
tually removed from the great European powers the 
temptation to occupy the two best harbours in the Carib- 
bean. Thus doubtless it saved itself future difficulties, 
and at the same time strengthened itself to deal with diffi- 
culties which might arise. These events considered in 
conjunction with the failure during 19 16 to press the 
treaty with Colombia,^ have been regarded in some quar- 
ters as proof that the Department of State under Presi- 
dent Wilson had become convinced that the evolution 
begun with the Spanish War and continued with the 
building of the Panama Canal was inevitable. - 

In still another field the administration seemed to some 
to be approaching more closely to the policy of its Repub- 
lican predecessors. The Democratic platforms since 1904 
had committed that party in favour of early independence 
of the Philippines under the same sort of guarantee 
which the United States maintains over Cuba. In prac- 

1 The treaty with Colombia, signed April 7, 1914, and ratified by 
Colombia June 9, 1914. offered full reparation for the secession of 
Panama. The text is published in the Congressional Record, LI II, 
appendix, pp. 443-445 ; and in the Reviezv of Reviezus, XLIX, 682. 
The treaty met with much opposition in the United States and was 
withdrawn in the Senate in April, 1917, pending the negotiation of a 
new treaty. 

2 See J. H. Latane, "The Effects of the Panama Canal on our 
Relations with Latin America," Annals of the American Academy, 
LIV, 84. 



FORMULATION OF THE ISSUE 119 

tice the party had contented itself with proposing a con- 
siderable extension of native participation in the govern- 
ment of the islands. The Jones bill, which had been 
before Congress since 191 1, was approved by President 
Wilson and its passage urged by him in all three of his 
annual messages to Congress. On February 4, 19 16, 
the Senate passed the bill with an amendment, intro- 
duced by Senator Clarke, of Arkansas, which proposed 
to grant independence to the Philippines within four 
years, their neutrality to be assured by international 
agreement, or failing this, the United States to guarantee 
independence. The President apparently approved the 
purpose of the Clarke amendment, but the House of 
Representatives did not, and the bill as finally passed 
retained the original expression of intent to grant in- 
dependence to the Fihpinos as soon as they were capable 
of self-government. The President, when he signed the 
bill August 29, 1916, declared it *' a very satisfactory 
advance " in the pohcy of extending to the Philippine 
people " self-government and control of their own af- 
fairs," for, as he said, " it is only by such means that 
any people comes into contentment and into political ca- 
pacity." ^ 

1 American Year Book, 1916, p. 10. The Act provides for the elec- 
tion by the Fihpino electorate of the upper as well as of the lower 
house of the legislature, and while strengthening the position of the 
Governor-General, who remains an appointee of the president, divides 
his appointing power with the upper house. For comparison with 
the President's promises see infra, p. 19, and Part III, Statement 
No. 9. 



120 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

DEFENCE OF POLICY 

Woodrow Wilson's satisfaction with the entire foreign 
poHcy of his administration was emphatically expressed in 
his address September 2, 1916, accepting the nomination 
of the Democratic party for a second term in the presi- 
dency. (Statement No. 6/.) There was no apologetic 
defence in the following words : '' In foreign affairs we 
have been guided by principles clearly conceived and con- 
sistently lived up to. Perhaps they have not been fully 
comprehended because they have hitherto governed inter- 
national affairs only in theory, not in practice. They are 
simple, obvious, easily stated, and fundamental to Ameri- 
can ideals." The principles underlying the difference in 
the methods of dealing with England and Germany were 
stated with sharp distinction : "... Property rights can 
be vindicated by claims for damages, and no modern na- 
tion can decline to arbitrate such claims ; but the funda- 
mental rights of humanity cannot be. The loss of life is 
irreparable. Neither can direct violation of a nation's 
sovereignty await vindication in suits for damages. The 
nation that violates these essential rights must expect to 
be checked and called to account by direct challenge and 
resistance." As a candidate, Mr. Wilson invited the 
judgment on the record of any who wished " to know 
the truth about it." 

With respect to Mexico he admitted that he doubtless 
had made mistakes in the " perplexing business," but they 
were not mistakes in " purpose or object." That purpose 



FORMULATION OF THE ISSUE i^i 

was to respect the sovereignty of the Mexican people and 
assist them to achieve dehverance from misrule and from 
the control of their opportunities by foreign influences. 
He boldly met the criticism of his opponents in these 
words : '' The Mexican people are entitled to attempt 
their liberty from such influences ; and so long as I have 
anything to do with the action of our great Government 
I shall do everything in my power to prevent any one 
standing in their way." He replied to the charge that 
the presence of the Pershing expedition in Mexico vio- 
lated these principles. United States troops had entered 
Mexican territory to vindicate a violation of its own 
sovereignty which Mexican authorities were powerless 
to prevent ; but in so doing the United States had '' com- 
mitted there no single act of hostility or interference even 
with the sovereign authority of the Republic of Mexico 
herself." To those who condemned the policy of non- 
recognition of Huerta he repeated the declaration he 
made in the early days of his administration, in these 
words : '' So long as the power of recognition rests 
with me the Government of the United States will refuse 
to extend the hand of welcome to any one who obtains 
power in a sister republic by treachery or violence." 

He did not expect that the United States would be 
drawn into the European war; but in the days after the 
war the nation would face " great and exacting prob- 
lems " which would require for their solution not only 
thought and courage and resourcefulness, but also ** in 
some matters radical reconsiderations of policy." '* No 



122 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

nation," he declared, " can any longer remain neutral as 
against any wilful disturbance of the peace of the world. 
. . . The nations of the world must unite in joint guaran- 
tees that whatever is done to disturb the whole world's life 
must first be tested in the court of the whole world's opin- 
ion before it is attempted." In the building of these new 
foundations of world peace the President expected the 
United States to contribute the full force of its enthusi- 
asm and authority as a nation generously and without too 
much thought of its separate interests. 

AN INTERNATIONAL PURPOSE 

During the next two months most of Mr. Wilson's 
public statements were campaign speeches, — many of 
them were frankly partisan in character. But the basis 
of principle lay underneath them all, and in asking for re- 
election he was careful to make clear at all times, as he did 
in the speech of acceptance, just what his attitude was to 
be regarding the place of the United States in world af- 
fairs. His address September 4, 19 16, accepting for the 
nation the Lincoln Alemorial at Hodgenville, Kentucky, 
was an exception — it was not a campaign speech and it 
did not concern the foreign policy of this country. 
{Statement No. 68.) But the President, unconsciously 
perhaps, gave expression even on that occasion to the 
thought that was uppermost in his mind throughout this 
period. The American democracy is to " lift a great light 
for the guidance of the nations," and the American people 



FORMULATION OF THE ISSUE 123 

must therefore " be in deed and in truth real democrats 
and servants of mankind." 

This idea he brought out over and over again, and he 
touched upon it in all but a few of his political addresses 
whether he were dealing with foreign or domestic matters. 
In Baltimore on September 25th, before an audience com- 
posed largely of members of the Grain Dealers' National 
Association, he talked mostly of America's place in 
the world's commerce. (Statement No. 6p.) But he 
pointed out that in this field as in the others the mission 
of America is to serve, not to conquer — or rather to 
conquer by service ; the all-important matter was '* releas- 
ing the intelligence of America for the service of man- 
kind." On October 5th to the Omaha Commercial Club he 
said : " for the next decade ... we have got to serve the 
world ... in a way that will deserve the confidence of 
the world " ; " American purposes are going to be tested 
by the purposes of mankind, and not by the purposes of 
national ambition." (Statement No. 71.) Late in the 
campaign, to an audience at Shadow Lawn, his vacation 
home, on November 4th, he declared it to be " an un- 
precedented thing in the world that any nation in deter- 
mining its foreign relations should be unselfish," and that 
America should set " the great example " ; for the destiny 
of America " is not divided from the destiny of the 
world ; . . . her purpose is justice and love of mankind." 
(Statement No. /8.) 
All through the campaign a great deal was said, sis was 



124 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

quite natural, in support of the President on the ground 
that " he has kept us out of war." Of course Mr. Wilson 
knew that his supporters were making this plea and 
doubtless he did not disapprove of this claim in his behalf, 
but it is significant that he scarcely mentioned it himself. 
For it is a striking fact that in asking as a candidate for 
the judgment of the voters on the record of his adminis- 
tration, President Wilson when dealing with domestic 
matters pointed to the results achieved, whereas, when 
dealing with foreign affairs he spoke emphatically and al- 
most exclusively of the principles which guided his policy. 
He was determined that the United States should have 
peace, but he was well aware that, if his policy con- 
tinued to be based on the principles he had laid down, 
his country might inevitably be drawn into war. True, 
in one of the few cases where he spoke of the United 
States being at peace, at Shadow Lawn, October 28th, 
he seems to count on its continuation. (Statement No. 
//.) P^or, in his own words: ''We have a peace 
founded upon the definite understanding that the United 
States, because it is powerful, self-possessed, because it 
has definite objects does not need to make a noise about 
them; because it knows that it can vindicate its right 
at any time, does not have to proclaim its right in terms 
of violent exaggeration. . . ." 

Nevertheless, his speeches indicate plainly that he was 
apprehensive. During the latter part of the year the 
United States became involved anew in vexatious contro- 
versies with both belligerents, at first on account of the 



FORMULATION OF THE ISSUE 125 

attempt of Germany to use American ports as harbours 
of refuge for its naval prizes/ and later because of the 
presence in American waters of German submarines, both 
commercial ^ and military.^ The restrictions placed upon 
neutral commerce by the Entente Allies were daily becom- 
ing more irritating. And most appalling of all there was 
a recrudescence of the '' terrorising '' submarine campaign 
of the Central Powers."* Vessels were being torpedoed 

1 The British steamer Apfam captured by the German raider 
Moewe was brought into Newport News, February i, 1916, under a 
prize crew. The German government claimed that under a treaty 
of 1799 its naval prizes had the right to remain indefinitely in Amer- 
ican waters. A United States District Court, however, in award- 
ing the Appam to its British owners, denied this claim. For dis- 
cussion, see J. B. Scott, "The Case of tlie Appam," American Jour- 
nal of International Law, X, 809; A. Burchard, "The Case of the 
Appam and the Law of Nations," ibid., XI, 270; F. R. Coudert, 
"The Appam Case," ibid., XI. 302. 

- The German merchant submarine Deutschland, unarmed, visited 
the United States in July. 1916. The English contention that it 
was potentially a warship, and therefore not entitled to remain in 
a neutral port, is so weak as to scarce deserve notice. 

3 The U-33, a German war submarine, entered the port of New- 
port, R. I., October 7, 1916, and after a few hours' stay departed. 
Operating 45 miles from the nearest American territory it sank 
six vessels. The Allies protested that these exploits were in viola- 
tion of American neutrality. The United States government, how- 
ever, decided that the U-53 had adhered to the rules of international 
law. 

* The following sinkings involving Americans occurred after 
May 8, 1916, the date of the Sussex settlement: British steamer 
Roivanmore, two Americans and five Filipinos aboard, sunk with- 
out warning, October 26, 1916; British steamer Marina, six Amer- 
icans lost, sunk without warning, October 28. 1916; American 
steamer Lanao, sunk October 28, 1916; British steamer Arabia, 
American passengers, sunk without warning, November 6, 1916; 
American steamer Columbian, sunk November 8, 1916; American 
steamer Chemung, sunk November 28, 1916; Italian steamer Pa- 
lermo, Americans aboard, sunk December 4, 1916; British horse 



126 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

without warning and, what made the matter the more 
exasperating, under circumstances which made it difficult 
to fix responsibihty or to find legal ground to justify 
American action. In the face of the impending ruin of 
neutral rights the President may well have doubted that 
the United States could remain at peace much longer. 

Toward the end of the campaign, feeling certain that 
his country would not shrink from war if war came, 
President Wilson exerted himself to formulate for the 
American people a purpose in waging war as high and 
noble as their own best conception of their national ideals. 
In this " critical juncture in the affairs of the world," he 
said at Shadow Lawn, October 7th, " the affairs of the 
world touch America very nearly. She does not stand 
apart. . . . There is nothing human that does not concern 
her." (Statement A^o. y^.) At Omaha, October 5th, in 
the very centre of the region in which the President's suc- 
cess in keeping the United States at peace was most 
emphasized, he declared : *' We are holding off, not be- 
cause we do not feel concerned, but because when we 
exert the force of this nation we want to know what 
we are exerting it for." No one could discern clearly 
what Europe was fighting for, but the force of America 
should always be held to fight *' not merely for the rights 
of property or of national ambition, but for the rights 
of mankind." (Statement No. jo.) At Indianapolis, 
October 12th, he asserted that America should ''not 

transport Russian, seventeen Americans lost, sunk December 14, 
1916. 



FORMULATION OF THE ISSUE 127 

stand for national agression, but . . . for the just con- 
ceptions and bases of peace, for the competition of merit 
alone, and for the generous rivalry of liberty." (State- 
ment No. 7J.) And at Shadow Lawn, October i6th, 
he came to the same topic again. The United States by 
circumstances which it did not choose or control '' has 
been thrust out into the great game of mankind, on the 
stage of the world itself . . . and no nation in the world 
must doubt that all her forces are gathered and organized 
in the interest of justice, righteousness, and humane gov- 
ernment." {Statement No. /S.) 

An emphatic and definite forecast of the future in re- 
spect to the part the United States was to play appeared 
in an address at Shadow Lawn, October 14th, when he 
said : *' It has been said . . . that the people of the 
United States do not want to fight about anything. . . . 
But . . . they want to be sure that they are fighting for 
the things that will bring to the world justice and peace. 
Define the elements ; let us know that we are not fighting 
for the prevalence of this nation over that, for the ambi- 
tions of this nation over that, for the ambitions of this 
group of nations as compared with the ambitions of that 
group of nations; let us once be convinced that we are 
called in to a great combination to fight for the rights of 
mankind, and America will unite her force and spill her 
blood for the great things which she has always believed 
in and followed. America is always willing to fight for 
things which are American." {Statement No. 74.) 

He was no less emphatic and even more bold at Cin- 



128 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

cinnati on October 26th. {Statement No. y6.) "This 
is the last war ... of any kind that involves the world," 
he said, '* that the United States can keep out of. . . . 
I believe the business of neutrality is over, not because 
I want it to be over but . . . war now has such a scale 
that the position of neutrals sooner or later becomes 
intolerable. . . . America must hereafter be ready as a 
member of the family of nations to exert her whole 
force, moral and physical, to the assertion of those rights 
throughout the round globe." 

While thus preparing the minds of his countrymen to 
accept the possibility of war and putting before their 
minds the ideals for which they could honourably fight, 
President Wilson did not forget the concrete ends to be 
achieved. Whether the United States were drawn into 
the great European conflict or not, when that conflict was 
over the United States had a great duty to perform. '' It 
will be the duty of America to join with the other nations 
of the world in some kind of league for the maintenance 
of peace," he said at Indianapolis, October 12th. (State- 
ment No. 7?.) The United States was saving itself in 
order that it might " unite in that final league of nations 
in which it shall be understood that there is no neutrality 
where any nation is doing wrong," was his assertion at 
Shadow Lawn, October 14th. (Statement No. 7^.) 
" The nations of the world must get together and say, 
* Nobody can hereafter be neutral as respects the disturb- 
ance of the world's peace for an object which the world's 
opinion can not sanction,' " he declared at Cincinnati, Oc- 



FORMULATION OF THE ISSUE 129 

tober 26th. (Statement No. yd. ) Never again could the 
United States be " provincial and isolated and uncon- 
nected with the great forces of the world " ; it was now 
" in the great drift of humanity which is to determine the 
politics of every country in the w-orld." Such were his 
thoughts at the close of the campaign in a speech at 
Shadow Lawn, November 4th. (Statement No. y8.) 

Thus during the summer and autumn did the President 
labour on the other and more important half of his pre- 
paredness program, — the preparation of the people of 
the United States to accept a new attitude toward their 
relations to the rest of the world. Standing on the firm 
basis of the principles enunciated during his whole admin- 
istration from the refusal to recognize Huerta down to 
the Sussex ultimatum, he dwelt continuously on the high 
ideals which should actuate a democracy and the great 
purposes it should serve. lie boldly cut loose from the 
old policy of isolation from Europe and advocated a 
union of the nations of the world in league to keep the 
world at peace. He warned his countrymen that they 
might have to enter the Great War sooner or later, and 
his own words made clear to them the issues at stake 
in that war. By repeatedly emphasizing the obscurity 
of the origin of that war and of the purposes of the 
belligerents in it he foreshadowed the demand he was 
to make, on the i8th of December, of the warring na- 
tions that they state clearly, so that the opinion of man- 
kind could judge, what their aims were. 



CHAPTER VII 
War to Insure Peace 

Position of President Wilson (December, 1916) — Interest of 
the United States in the Settlement of the European War — 
" Peace without Victory " — Bases of Durable Peace — Germany 
vs. Neutral Nations — American Decision — " Armed Neutral- 
ity "—v German Proposals to Mexico — Effect of the Russian 
Revolution — United States Enters the War — Principles of 
the United States — Restatements of Purpose. 

The time had come for President Wilson to take the 
action which his previous utterances had foreshadowed 
and which impelling events now made so necessary. In- 
asmuch as the Central Powers had taken steps in early 
December to bring about a negotiation for peace in 
Europe/ it was essential, if the United States was to 
have a part in the readjustment at the close of hostilities, 
that the President present at once his plans for the basis 
of permanent peace and international co-operation.^ 
Such a step w^as natural at this time, even if the Central 
Powers had not acted. Nor could it well have been taken 
earlier. With the recent verdict of the American electo- 
rate as an endorsement of his administration of foreign 

1 Text of the proposals of the Central Powers in Current His- 
tory, (New York Times,) V, 588-590. 

2 Address of May 27, 1916, before the League to Enforce Peace 
was an unofficial utterance, as were subsequent speeches in which he 
had urged the same procedure. 

130 



I 



WAR TO INSURE PEACE 131 

affairs, the President was free to proceed, as he had not 
been during the presidential campaign and as he could 
not have been at this time had he been defeated and been 
preparing to turn over the government to a successor. 

With the responsibility his own, President Wilson on 
December 18, 19 16, asked the belligerents to state the 
terms upon which they would deem it possible to make 
peace. (Statement No. /p.) He was careful to say that 
he was not proposing peace nor even mediation. To have 
done so and succeeded in bringing about a conference 
might have defeated the very ends he sought. His inter- 
est was in the preliminaries that must precede a successful 
peace conference. He was not desirous of simply stop- 
ping the war, as he had been two years earlier. He and 
his country and the world had gone beyond that. He 
was asking the belligerents in the name of the neutral 
world to state their purposes, not in the general terms 
in which each group had indulged again and again, but 
definitely, so that the world might know them and that 
a comparison might be made of them. 

The United States, affected vitally by the war, had to 
consider its future course if the war was to continue. 
Not only because of vital national interests was this true. 
Above them there was a greater question. The United 
States was interested in the settlement of the war in such 
a way that a stable peace was to be assured after the war. 
H the war was to continue for purely national aims, the 
possibility of a league of the nations at the close of hos- 
tilities grew increasingly remote. 



132 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

It is a great mistake, then, to call this a peace note. It 
is not the statement of a possible mediator, as Wilson had 
been pictured in the early months of the war. It is the 
utterance of a statesman with an international vision tak- 
ing the next step in the program outlined by him seven 
months earlier.^ Speaking for the neutral world, Presi- 
dent Wilson chose this moment to apply the test of pur- 
pose to the belligerent powers. Rather than a peace note, 
it was a declaration of purpose to participate in a confer- 
ence to arrange for the safety of the world after peace 
had come, and an intention to discover by this means the 
real enemies of international co-operation. 

Secretary Lansing in commenting upon the note made 
it even plainer that the United States felt the need of a 
statement of aims.- As the United States drew nearer to 
the verge of war this need was increasingly patent. Pub- 
lic opinion quite generally interpreted Mr. Lansing's 
statement to mean that the administration was con- 
templating a change in policy. In a second statement 
Mr. Lansing indicated that the administration had no 
intention of forsaking its policy of neutrality. But the 
President and the Secretary were thinking of the desira- 
bility of having the purposes of the belligerents clearly 
before the American people if, forced to participate, the 
United States were to choose to use its power to assist 
in the organization of league of nations. Moreover it 

"^ Infra, Part III, Statement No. 60. 

2 Note was published December 21, 1916, and Secretary Lansing 
gave out two statements on that day. New York Times, December 
22, 191 6. 



WAR TO INSURE PEACE 133 

was true that irrespective of the desires of the United 
States it did come nearer the verge of war as the new 
year opened. For the controversy with Germany was 
not settled, and it had been postponed in such a way as 
to make certain the participation of the United States 
the moment Germany reopened it.^ 

It was natural in view of the recent German overtures 
for peace that there should have been some thought that 
the President's action favoured the German cause. Such 
a view overlooked the President's previous acts and oft 
repeated statements of purpose, as well as the pending 
controversies between the two countries. However, the 
nature of the President's action became more clear when 
the German response of December 26, 19 16, was found to 
be a general acceptance only and decidedly not a response 
in the spirit of the President's request.^ On the other 
hand, the response of the Entente Allies, on January 10, 
191 7, in spite of the earlier manifestation of disapproval 
in England, was more detailed in statement of aim and 
purpose, and thus came much nearer meeting the Presi- 
dent's request.^ Their definiteness, however, in conjunc- 
tion with the rejection by the Entente of the German 
proposal of December 12, 19 16, gave opportunity to the 
German government to declare that '' the full responsibil- 
ity for the continuation of bloodshed " rested upon its 
enemies.* 

1 Infra, p. 105. 

2 Text, Current Historv (New York Times) V, 783. 

3 Text, ibid., V, 783-785. 
* Text, ibid., V. 789-790. 



134 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

Great Britain, in a supplementary note of January 13, 
1917, presented on January 17, 191 7, stated in significant 
words its position upon the question of a durable peace. 
Three conditions were stipulated : causes of international 
unrest must be removed or weakened, aggressive aims of 
the governments of the Central Powers must fall into dis- 
repute among their peoples, and some form of interna- 
tional sanction must be given to international law and 
treaty agreements.-^ Premier Lloyd George on January 
1 1, 19 1 7, in a public address predicted the formation of a 
league of peace. 

The next step in the President's program was to reveal 
his reaction to the replies of the belligerents. This he did 
in an address to the Senate on January 22, 1917. (State- 
ment No. 80.) From the attitude of the Entente he 
found reason to believe that a satisfactory conference was 
not impossible, for in their willingness to state their aims 
he saw progress toward the organization of a concert of 
power. The President was not ignorant of the storm of 
criticism that had come upon him in the Senate because 
of his suggestion in the note of December 18, 19 16, that 
the United States have a part in an international agree- 
ment.^ He was proceeding upon his way, yet he said in 
the address to the Senate, and his action in coming empha- 
sized it, that he felt it due that body, associated as it was 
with him in the final determination of the international 
obligations of the United States, that he inform it of the 

1 Text, ibid., V, 786-788. 

2 The Senate had finally endorsed the note, January 5, 1917, by a 
vote of 48-17. Congressional Record, LIV, 897. 



WAR TO INSURE PEACE 135 

convictions which had been taking shape in his mind. As 
President Wilson saw it, the United States had long been 
preparing for this opportunity. American purposes and 
principles pointed in no other direction. It was the right 
of the world to know definitely the conditions upon which 
the United States could join a league of nations. The 
President then proceeded to state those conditions. The 
conclusive proof that the plan foreshadowed by his note 
of December 18, 19 16, was not a peace project is found 
in this elaboration of program. 

The President suggested '* peace without victory," for 
his interest was in the possible basis for an international 
concert of power which might be found in the terms on 
which the war was to be ended. " No covenant of co- 
operative peace that does not include the peoples of the 
Xew World can suffice to keep the future safe against 
war ; and yet there is only one sort of peace that the peo- 
ples of America could join in guaranteeing." " Only a 
tranquil Europe can be a stable Europe." Just as with 
reference to Mexico he had been concerned for the people 
rather than the government, so in Europe he wanted no 
victory over a people. Small nations were to find in the 
world after the war a protection that rested in the general 
acceptance of the principle that in rights all nations, large 
and small, are equal. Furthermore, governments in the 
stable world, of which the President was speaking, must 
" derive all their just powers from the consent of the 
governed." " Any peace that does not recognize and ac- 
cept this principle will inevitably be upset." 



136 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

But the war had raised more than the question of Bel- 
gium or Poland and their right to exist in Europe; the 
war had forced upon the whole world the primary ques- 
tion involved in the " freedom of the seas." From the 
outset in spite of the natural limitations of diplomatic 
notes the President had a freedom of the seas in mind 
that differed from the contention of either Germany or 
England.^ Here now he stated it. " And the paths of 
the sea must alike in law and in fact be free, . . . the 
free, constant, unthreatened intercourse of nations is an 
essential part of the process of peace and of develop- 
ment." An arrangement such as the President was out- 
lining would remove for ever a misuse of the seas, and it 
would close also, and here the emphasis should be placed, 
the opportunity sought by Germany to force a way to 
freedom by denying the use of the sea to all peaceful peo- 
ples. The highway of the sea belonged to the whole 
world. The consent of the governed should here be the 
guide. 

Mr. Wilson must have known that apart from the 
change that had to be accomplished in the minds of Euro- 
pean statesmen before his program could in any measure 
be accepted, there was for him the need of bringing 
the American people to the support of such a program. 
Without change in the popular conception of American 
foreign policy all effort to establish the United States in 
an advantageous position prior to the conclusion of a 
peace would be vain. To conclude, then, he found in this 

^ Infra, p. 89. 



WAR TO INSURE PEACE 137 

proposal no break in the traditions or policy of the Ameri- 
can people.^ For he was asking- merely, that no nation 
aggress upon another, that there be no entangling alli- 
ances, and that the " consent of the governed " be the 
guide in the rule of the sea. 

The way in which the President proposed to use the 
power of the United States was to throw all its weight 
toward the formation of a concert of power. He so 
stated the case in this address of January 22, 1917, 
that, if his proposal of "peace without victory" failed 
of acceptance, that nation, or group of nations, which 
came nearest to his position upon the matter of a durable 
peace, could be supported by him openly and for greater 
than national reasons in the next crisis. Mr. Wilson's 
own comment upon this address is significant of his 
conception of leadership: " I have said what everybody 
has been longing for, but has thought impossible. Now 
it appears to be possible." ^ 

The next crisis Germany brought on and in a way to 
indicate that those in control in Germany had not the 
slightest appreciation of the strength of purpose of the 
American administration. Indeed the manner in which 
Germany forced the issue made it clear to those hitherto 
sceptical that the President's proposal of January 22, 

^ See J. H. Latane, " The Monroe Doctrine and the American 
Policy of Isolation in Relation to a Just and Durable Peace," in 
Annals of American Academy, LXXII, 100. 

2 Ex-President Taft stated in an interview that this address marked 
" an epoch in the history of our foreign policy." Mr. Roosevelt and 
Mr. Bryan commented adversely, although each gave different rea- 
sons for so doing. 



138 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

191 7, was the last possible move of the United States, 
short of war itself, for participation in a conference of 
nations. As Germany saw fit to challenge the basic po- 
sition of the United States, i.e., its insistence upon ad- 
herence to law, the United States had but one course 
open, — to wage war for an international ideal. 

On January 31, 19 17, the Imperial German government 
announced that on and after February ist it would adopt 
a policy of sinking all ships met in the ** barred sea zone." 
The justification for this move the German government 
found in the Entente rejection of the German proposal of 
December 12, 19 16. All weapons on land, sea and air 
were to be used to force a decision. The President 
pointed out in his address to Congress on February 3, 
191 7 {Statement No. 81), that this was a repudiation of 
the promise made on May 4, 19 16. 

It was this repudiation that made a break with Germany 
inevitable at this point.^ But the speech of the President 
on May 2y, 1916, his note of December 18, 1916, and his 
address of January 22, 191 7, all raised the matter high 
above the question of a break with the government of Ger- 
many. The time had come when a break meant that the 
United States was to throw its power against the disturb- 
ers of world peace. It was indeed a time to talk of rights 
of humanity and the welfare of mankind. To Woodrow 
Wilson do the people of the United States owe the fact 
that when diplomatic relations were broken on the 3rd 

1 Because of the American ultimatum of April 18, 1916. See ed- 
itorial comment, American Journal of International Law, XI, 380. 
Also, infra, p. 102. 



WAR TO INSURE PEACE 139 

of February, they were broken for the purpose of ad- 
vancing an international cause. The President did not 
ask Congress to declare war, but stated that he should 
take no further steps toward war until overt acts of 
the German government forced him to do so. It was not 
that he really doubted the determined purpose of the 
German government but that he had another step to 
take in the particular course that he was following. 

On the next day, February 4, 191 7, the Department of 
State asked neutrals to join with the United States in tak- 
ing a position in conformity with the President's address 
of January 22, 191 7. The German order that led to the 
rupture of diplomatic relations with the United States was 
not directed particularly or only at the United States. 
Consequently President Wilson urged a wider basis for 
the action of the United States. The statement included 
a definite reference to the address of January 22, 1917, as 
a guide and stated that a unity of action upon the part 
of all neutrals would make for progress toward peace 
for the world. ^ 

The President was proceeding on a way habitual with 
him. He had moved forward one more step in his pro- 
gram of January 22, 19 17. He now proposed to wait 
until the American people had not only endorsed it with 
enthusiasm, as they did, but until they comprehended its 
implication and enabled him to make the next move safely 
and as a ruler in a democracy should.^ 

^ For a summary of action of neutrals, see the World Court, III, 
154-163 ; 234-237. 
2 The American government in answer to a memorandum pre- 



140 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

As the German submarine campaign proceeded it be- 
came evident that overt acts compelled action.^ But, in- 
stead of asking for a declaration of war, the President 
on February 26, 191 7, a week before the adjournment of 
Congress, asked that authority be granted him to arm 
ships for entrance into the barred sea zone. (Statement 
iVo. 82.) He wished to protect as completely as possible 
the rights of the citizens of the United States on the high 
seas without having to resort to war. It may be pointed 
out also that the action proposed would have sharply dis- 
tinguished the case of an American in the war zone upon 
an unarmed merchant vessel from that of an American 
in the war zone under protecting American guns ; and 
would thus have served to emphasize the character of 
German warfare as an attack on the sovereignty of neu- 
tral states as well as a violation of the rights of their 
citizens. The break in diplomatic relations having failed, 
as had earlier forms of protest, to impress the German 
government with the seriousness of the purpose of the 
United States, there was but one course open to the Presi- 
dent, if his government was to continue, as the most pow- 
erful of neutrals, to lead in the defence of the rights of 
neutral nations, and that was to use some form of force 

sented by the Swiss minister at the request of the German govern- 
ment declined on February ii, 1917, to negotiate unless the decree of 
January 31, 1917, was first withdrawn. 

^ In February these reports were undisputed: February 3, 191 7, 
American steamship Housatonic sunk by submarine; February 13, 
1917, American schooner Lyman M. Law torpedoed in the Mediter- 
ranean ; February 24, 1917, Laconia, Cunard liner, sunk without 
warning, two Americans lost. 



WAR TO INSURE PEACE 141 

against the aggressions of a belligerent. And the Presi- 
dent was careful to emphasize that he was moving for 
more than purely national defence. Said he : "I am 
thinking, not only of the rights of Americans to go and 
come about their proper business by way of the sea, but 
also of something miich deeper, much more fundamental 
than that. I am thinking of those rights of humanity 
without which there is no civilization." His request w^as 
not granted because of determined opposition in the Sen- 
ate.^ Notwithstanding this fact, authorization to arm 
ships was given to American shipmasters by presidential 
proclamation on IMarch 12, 19 17. 

In the midst of this exciting controversy as to the 
wisdom of the course pursued by the administration it 
became known on February 28, 19 17, through the publi- 
cation of a letter of the German Foreign Secretary Zim- 
mermann to the German minister at Mexico City, that on 
January 19, 191 7, a proposal was made by Germany for 
an alliance with Mexico with the definite end that, in the 
event that the United States ceased to be a neutral, Mex- 
ico with the financial support of Germany should make 
war upon the United States. It was further suggested 
that Mexico offer to mediate between Japan and Germany 
to the end that Japan might enter into alliance with Mex- 

1 The House had voted this power, 403 to 14. Congressional 
Record, LIV, 4692. A majority of the Senate were prevented from 
hke action by the opposition of eleven members who were able under 
rules of the Senate to prevent a decisive vote. The statement of 
seventy-five members of the Senate may be found in the Congres- 
sional Record, LIV, 4988. 



142 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

ico and Germany.^ The publication of this letter created 
a tremendous sensation, although the preceding months 
of pro-German propaganda had prepared the people of 
the United States for this revelation of the purpose and 
plans of the German government. 

In his second inaugural address on March 5, 1917, 
President Wilson affirmed his adherence to armed neu- 
trality, but intimated that a more active assertion of 
power might soon be necessary. '' We are provincials no 
longer," said he. Yet the people of the United States 
were to be no less Americans in the coming days " if we 
but remain true to the principles in which we have been 
bred." He again restated the things that the United 
States stood for, whether in war or in peace. (Statement 
No. 83.) 

On March 9, 1917, the President issued a proclamation 
calling the new Congress in extra session. In the interval 
prior to its convening events in Russia took general atten- 
tion from all other developments, in America or upon the 
sea. A revolution in Russia resulted in the abdication 
of the Czar and the establishment of a provisional govern- 
ment. The new government of Russia was formally rec- 
ognized by the United States on March 22, 1917.^ The 

1 The Department of States testified to the authenticity of the 
published note on March i, 1917, and on March 3, 1917, Secretary 
Zimmermann acknowledged that it was genuine. It should be noted 
that on February 5, 1917, the last detachment of American troops 
had withdrawn from Mexico and on March 3, 1917, the new Amer- 
ican ambassador, H. P. Fletcher, had presented his credentials at 
Mexico City. 

2 The United States was the first nation to recognize the new 
government. American Journal of International Laze, XI, 419. 



WAR TO INSURE PEACE 143 

overthrow of autocratic government was to work a pro- 
found change in the attitude of many Americans toward 
the cause of the Entente Allies. It was apparent at once 
in the increased emphasis laid upon the existence of an 
autocratic government in Germany and its part in forcing 
war upon the world. ^ 

Early in April the President was prepared to indicate 
the necessity of declaring war upon Germany. To the 
Congress on April 2, 191 7, he recounted the recent Ger- 
man acts in detail. (Statement No. 84.) "Interna- 
tional law had its origin in the attempt to set up some law 
which would be respected and observed upon the seas, 
where no nation had right of dominion, and where lay the 
free highways of the world. By painful stage after stage 
has that law been built up with meagre enough results, 
indeed, after all was accomplished that could be accom- 
plished, but always with a clear view, at least, of what the 
heart and conscience of mankind demanded." But said 
the President, " The present German submarine warfare 
against commerce is a warfare against mankind. It is 
a war against all nations." Armed neutrality was not 
sufficient in such a crisis. " I advise that the Congress 
declare the recent course of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment to be in fact nothing less than war against the 
Government and people of the United States." ^ 

1 In the month of March five American vessels had been sunk 
without warning and at least twenty American citizens lost. 

2 For careful comment see J. B. Scott, " The United States at War 
with the Imperial German Government," American Journal of Inter- 
national Law,. XI, 617. Citation of causes as they appeared to Con- 
gress are here given in convenient form. See also Report of Com- 



144 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

After pointing out the practical steps for participation 
that must be taken, the President returned to the theme 
of purpose. He reiterated his proposals of January 22, 
1917. "Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the 
principles of peace and justice in the life of the world 
as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up 
amongst the really free and self-governed peoples of 
the world such a concert of purpose and of action as 
will henceforth insure the observance of those principles." 
Having such an aim, peace among free peoples, the 
President could logically point out that against the Ger- 
man people there was no grievance. The purpose of 
the United States was to help thwart the aims of a 
government that declared an autocratic purpose, and it 
was sound to assert that such a government could be 
dissociated from a people who had no control over the 
actions of that government. 

'* We shall fight for the things which we have always 
carried nearest our hearts " — for democracy, for self- 
government, for the rights of small nations, for a concert 
of free peoples, for a world peace. Thus the President 
could justly say that, as he had formed the purpose of the 
nation, it was a warfare for mankind and for the peace 
of the world. On April 16, 19 17, in an address to the 
American people (Statement No. 8j) the President asked 
of them that they " speak, act and serve together " for 
the high purposes outlined in the address of January 22, 
19 17, and in the message to Congress on April 2, 19 17. 

mittee on Foreign Aflfairs. House of Representatives, Congressional 
Record (Daily), LV, 191 (April 5, 1917). 



WAR TO INSURE PEACE 145 

So high an ideal inevitably encountered the charge that 
it was not sincere, that the language of the President was 
but a cloak to an ambition he dare not aver ; in short, that 
he v^as as leaders of other nations were, in the war for 
national ends. The record of acts as well as words of 
the President gives this its answer. On May 22, 191 7, 
the President felt called upon to denounce efforts to 
weaken preparation by questioning purpose, when in a 
letter to Representative Heflin, he said : " We have en- 
tered the war for our own reasons and with our own 
objects clearly stated and shall forget neither the reasons 
nor the objects." (Statement No. 86.) 

In addressing an audience at Arlington National Cem- 
etery on Memorial Day the President showed the turn 
his thought had taken when he called for action, not 
words. {Statement No. 8y.) The time had come to 
show that American principles were living principles. 
Inasmuch as these principles had been attacked as ideal- 
istic throughout his administration, the President doubt- 
less felt the greater need for rapid action. 

On June 9, 19 17, the President in a communication to 
the new government of Russia again reverted to the mis- 
taken and misleading statements as to the objects of the 
United States in entering the war. {Statement No. 88.) 
In the hope of the cordial co-operation of the peoples of 
Russia and the United States he stated the objects once 
more. Of his own country the President said in unmis- 
takable terms : '' She seeks no material profit or aggran- 
dizement of any kind. She is fighting for no advantage 



146 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY ^' 

or selfish object of her own, but for the Hberation of peo- 
ples everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force. 
. . . We are fighting for the liberty, the self-government, 
and undictated development of all peoples, and every 
feature of the settlement that concludes this war must be 
conceived and executed for that purpose. . . . But they 
must follow a principle, and that principle is plain. No 
people must be forced under sovereignty under which it 
does not wish to live." Again the President called for a 
practical treatment of practical questions. " We ought 
not," said he, " to consider remedies merely because they 
have a pleasing and sonorous sound." 

On Flag Day, June 14, 19 17, he took occasion to an- 
swer the general query, " Why was the United States 
about to send an army to Europe?" His answer was 
found in the new purpose, as that had been formed in a 
new conception of American duty, not only to her own 
future, but to that of the world at large. The Presi- 
dent's own conception had grown sharper and clearer. 
" The military masters of Germany denied us the right 
to be neutral." (Statement No. 8g.) Undeniably such 
words could have been used by a man forcing a war, and 
endeavouring to delude his people and the world as to 
his real purpose. But the answer to any such charge 
may be found in the record of his administration. As 
the choice of peoples had had no part in launching the 
European war, it was natural to say that the American 
war was not upon the German people. The war upon 
which the United States had entered was a war on 



WAR TO INSURE PEACE 147 

behalf of " peoples," a war for freedom and justice and 
self-government for all the nations of the world. This 
statement was emphasized by the pledge given to the 
Belgian War ^Mission on June 18, 191 7, that Belgium 
at the close of the war should be restored " to the place 
she has so richly won among the self-respecting and 
respected nations of the earth." 

Confusion has often been confessed by commentators 
in discussing the entrance of the United States into the 
war. They express difficulty in reconciling the address 
of January 22, 191 7, with the subsequent acts of the 
President. This arises primarily out of a lack of knowl- 
edge of the steps which led up to the address of January 
22, 191 7, particularly the note of December 18, 1916, and 
the address of May 27, 191 6. A careful reading of the 
President's statements, particularly after April 19, 191 5, 
in accompaniment with a record of German acts, should 
make this confusion disappear. There are Americans 
who see either only the national issue or only the inter- 
national cause. It is of vital importance to clear thinking 
that these aims be not dissociated.^ 

Secretary Lansing doubtless had this in mind when on 
July 29, 191 7, he said: ''The immediate cause of our 
war with Germany — the breaking of her promises as to 
indiscriminate submarine warfare — has a far deeper 
meaning, a meaning which has been growing more evident 
as the war progresses and which needed but this act of 

1 See a brilliant exposition of President Wilson's course by W. 
Lippmann, "The World Conflict in its Relation to American De- 
mocracy," Annals of American Academy, LXXII, i. 



148 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

perfidy to bring it home to all thinking Americans. . . . 
We know now that that government is inspired with 
ambitions which menace human liberty; and that to gain 
its end, it does not hesitate to break faith, to violate the 
most sacred rights, or to perpetrate intolerable acts of 
inhumanity." 

This deeper purpose of the course against the German 
government, not the mere desire for a crushing victory 
over German arms, again actuated the President in his 
reply to the Pope on August 27, 191 7. " We cannot take 
the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guarantee 
of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supported 
by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of 
the German people themselves as the other peoples of 
the world would be justified in accepting." (Statement 
No. po.) 



CHAPTER VIII 
Leadership of Woodrow Wilson 

Components of Foreign Policy — Fundamental Principles of 
Mr. Wilson — Conditions Affecting Practice — Importance of 
Public Opinion — Sincerity of the President — Application of 
Principles — Faith in Democracy — Equality of Nations — 
Fair Dealing between Nations — Supremacy of Law — War 
for Humanity — Importance of Consistency — Bases for Judg- 
ment — Position of the United States in 1917. 

It is now possible to state definitely the several elements 
of which President Wilson's foreign policy was com- 
pounded. There were in the first place the fundamental 
beliefs of the man himself — the unshakable convictions 
which had become his after years of study of the efforts 
of the peoples of the world to govern themselves. The 
primary and basic principle was a faith in democracy, 
both as an ideal and as a practice. Upon the soundness 
of the democratic principle he rested all his other beliefs. 

Because he believed in democracy he believed that every 
nation should regard every other nation as its equal ; that 
fair dealing was the best means of preserving friendship 
and peace between nations ; that the guidance of estab- 
lished law was essential to international justice and fair 
dealing; and that, if unhappily disputes should arise be- 
tween nations, the proper means for settling them was a 
reasoned consideration before a court of arbitration of the 

149 



150 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

controversies in the light of the law. Finally, he believed 
not that force should never be used by nations against 
each other, but that it should be relied upon only to 
combat criminal aggression and to further great humani- 
tarian purposes. 

Principles alone, however, did not make the Wilson 
foreign policy. His beliefs and his own actions based 
thereon the President could control ; there were also ex- 
ternal modifying circumstances for the most part outside 
of his direction. Chief of these were obviously the 
events in international relations having their origin in 
other governments or nations, — events which could not 
possibly be foreseen or controlled by the President, and 
which thus constituted the chief danger to the successful 
application of principles. Only slightly less difficult to 
control were the acts and speeches of United States of- 
ficers at home and abroad and the activities of the govern- 
ments of the various members of the American union. 
There were, moreover, the constitution and laws of his 
country, the treaties, the obligations incurred by previous 
administrations, and the accepted rules of international 
law, — in brief the whole body of public law which set the 
boundaries to the exercise of power by the President. 

There was still another element conditioning the direc- 
tion of foreign affairs by President Wilson. That was 
the public opinion of the nation, with its almost impercep- 
tible and sometimes incomprehensible shifts. It was true 
of course that, in the performance of duties imposed upon 
him by the Constitution, the chief executive of the United 



LEADERSHIP OF WOODROW WILSON 151 

States might by the direction of diplomacy and otherwise 
have brought his country to a pass where it was dangerous 
to go forward and dishonourable to withdraw, — all with- 
out reference to the attitude of the public mind. But 
President Wilson's faith in democracy was too deep to 
permit the exclusion of foreign ajffairs from as much pop- 
ular control as was possible. When he moved he wished 
to move in accord with the desires of the people, and 
he was quick to realize what moves in international rela- 
tions the people would approve. He was not unmindful, 
however, of the unrivalled opportunity for great leader- 
ship which the presidency offered its incumbent, and he 
did not neglect this opportunity. His speeches and even 
his formal state papers, his messages and proclamations, 
seem to have been directed toward informing and mould- 
ing public opinion. 

A careful and unbiased study of the record of Presi- 
dent Wilson reveals convincingly the sincerity with which 
he held the principles he affirmed. It was not mere facil- 
ity of expression which made it possible for him to restate 
in so many ways and with such telling effect the time- 
honoured ideals of a great democratic people. No char- 
latan of politics, however facile, however adroit, could 
have maintained his hold upon public opinion through 
four such trying years. The profound convictions of a 
scientist as to the fundamentals of political philosophy, 
wrought into his thinking in the years when there was no 
thought of his entering public life, were the guides Presi- 
dent Wilson followed as leader and servant of his people. 



152 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

It is important to know that President Wilson sincerely 
believed in what he professed to believe. But the true 
significance attaches to his rigid adherence to his beliefs 
in practice. Others have held the same principles, and 
quite as sincerely. If they have rarely applied them as 
practical guides in foreign relations it is because there 
was lacking either the intellectual ability to perceive the 
necessity for so applying them or the moral courage to 
follow the difficult road that must be travelled in so apply- 
ing them. It remains to be shown how President Wilson 
consistently and faithfully lived up to his professions at a 
time when the opportunity for service was so great and 
failure to serve would have been so disastrous. 

His faith in the democratic principle led him habitually 
to submit his foreign policy to the test of public opinion in 
the United States; if public opinion did not support him, 
his policy must be modified or the public mind educated ; 
and his way of educating public opinion was to announce 
a general policy and allow it to be discussed among the 
people. iHis belief in democracy impelled him to insist on 
granting to the Filipino people a greater measure of self- 
government and to promise them a still wider participa- 
tion as they learned to use their new powers. It im- 
pelled him likewise to leave the Mexican people free 
as far as possible to work out their own solution — as 
the European nations had for centuries been doing — 
of their own problems. And finally it impelled him to 
make that important distinction between the German peo- 
ple and the German Imperial government on which he 



LEADERSHIP OF WOODROW WILSON 153 

based his declaration that German guarantees of peace 
could be accepted only when supported by the unmistak- 
able will of the German people. 

His belief in the equality of nations led him to feel as 
much pride in the fact that the first of the " Bryan peace 
treaties " to be ratified was with Salvador, as he would 
have felt had it been with Great Britain. It inevitably 
impelled him to refuse to permit the United States to 
assume such responsibilities toward its own citizens that 
it must incur the risk of interfering with the political life 
of another people; better it was that the less advanced 
peoples of the world should do without the help of Amer- 
ica than that the United States in order to give its aid 
should seem to take a mortgage on their future independ- 
ence and integrity. 

His reliance on justice and fair dealing between na- 
tions moved him to be scrupulously punctilious in the 
observance of treaty obligations, as when he insisted upon 
the repeal of the tolls exemption clause of the Panama 
Canal Act. It led him, even in the absence of treaties and 
when the right of the United States was unquestioned, to 
deal with other nations according to principles of equity, 
as, for example, in trying to meet the complaint of the 
Japanese against the laws of California and of the United 
States. It obliged him while professing friendship for a 
nation to actually act toward it in a friendly manner ; it 
was impossible for him while trying to conduct the case of 
the United States against Germany in 191 5 by diplomatic 
means to have been all the time preparing and strength- 



154 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

ening and mobilizing the military and naval power of the 
United States. 

His adherence to established law led him to insist that 
the " orderly processes " of constitutional method be fol- 
lowed in changing administrations in the states of the new 
world; appearance of intrigue and assassination in the 
elevation of Huerta to the presidency of Mexico could not 
be condoned by recognition of him. The same principle 
obliged him to insist on the strict observance by all bel- 
hgerents in the Great War of the rights of neutrals under 
the sacred agreements and customs of international law, 
and that those rules should not be altered in any respect 
by any one belligerent nor to the detriment of neutral 
rights by all the belligerents. 

His conviction that arbitration was the most desirable 
means of composing international disagreements led his 
administration not only to renew the arbitration treaties 
concluded by previous administrations, but to take a step 
forward by negotiating a series of treaties providing for 
" commissions of inquiry." It led him, and would have 
done so had there been no agreement to arbitrate, to defer 
the settlement of disputes with Great Britain until after 
the war when matters at issue could be decided on a basis 
of justice. It impelled him to propose mediation between 
the warring powers of Europe and to accept without 
hesitation the mediation of Latin America in the dispute 
with Mexico. 

Finally, his belief that war should not be resorted to 
until other means of resolving difference between nations 



LEADERSHIP OF WOODROW WILSON 155 

had been exhausted, and then only for purposes which 
were bound up with the welfare of mankind, led him to 
use every diplomatic method for bringing the German 
government to realize the gravity of its offence against 
civilization and humanity, and to defer actual warfare 
until the American people could assure themselves that 
they were really to fight for a great world-wide and age- 
old human purpose. 

The moves in Wilson's foreign policy, with few and 
justified exceptions, were consistent with each other. 
Had he not taken for the United States the ground he 
did take in 19 13 and held it during four years in spite 
of enormous difficulties, the United States could not have 
stood on that ground and fought from that vantage point 
in 191 7. Had he not yielded to Great Britain the utmost 
of its rights under treaty with the United States he could 
not have later honestly demanded from Great Britain and 
from Germany the observance of all neutral rights under 
international obligations. Had he cynically ignored the 
results of official iniquity in Mexico in the first weeks 
of his administration he could not four years later con- 
vincingly have condemned — as he did in his note to Pope 
Benedict XV — the gross iniquity of officialdom in Ger- 
many. Had his government ever infringed upon the 
sovereignty of less powerful peoples he could not, without 
exciting derision, have ever championed the rights of 
Poland and Belgium and the Balkan states. Plad the 
United States, under his presidency, demanded indemni- 
ties of Mexico or attempted by conquest to annex Mexican 



156 DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY 

territory, the United States could not have admonished the 
world that there should be no conquests as the result of 
the Great War. Had his administration not dealt fairly 
with the Mexicans, the Chinese, the Filipinos in the first 
years of his responsibilities, he could not have expected 
the English, the Russians, the French, least of all the Ger- 
mans, to rely with confidence on his assurance of intent to 
deal fairly with them in the later years. In short, had he 
not, during his entire incumbency, conducted himself as 
the first servant of a democracy should, he could not have 
expected to carry conviction when, on April 2, 19 17, he 
asked the United States to go to war to make the world 
" safe for democracy." 

If President Wilson's foreign policy had led immedi- 
ately to the restoration of order in Mexico and had 
secured from European nations the demands of the 
United States without involving it in the conflict, it would 
have been hailed as tremendously successful. But it 
would have merited praise no more than it did deserve 
it, those results not having been accomplished. The mo- 
tives which actuated it, the ends which it tried to achieve, 
the principles which guided it and the means which it used 
would have been precisely the same. There are so many 
variables in the facts -of national and international af- 
fairs and their relationships are so complex, that the 
same principles applied by the same methods in two 
apparently precisely similar sets of circumstances may 
work to a happy result in the one case, and by the merest 
accident, to an unhappy one in the other. The prin- 



LEADERSHIP OF WOODROW WILSON 157 

ciples and methods alone are under true control of states- 
men, and they ought to be judged, not primarily by im- 
mediate results, but with reference to their permanent 
value to serve the desirable permanent purposes they are 
calculated to serve. 

But the results of the Wilson policy themselves justify 
the policy. It was a result of that policy that the Ameri- 
can people finally saw the imperative necessity for their 
participation in the Great War. It was a result of that 
policy that the war, a European quarrel originating ob- 
scurely in petty dynastic ambition, in greedy economic 
rivalry, and in base national hatred, was transformed, 
by the entrance of the L^nited States, into a world con- 
flict with the united forces of democracy and international 
peace ranged squarely against autocracy and continued 
world struggle. It was a result of that policy that the 
United States, — not England, not France, not even new 
Russia, — became the leader, the bearer of the '* great 
light for the guidance of the nations," in the magnificent 
new venture of democracy to league the peoples of the 
world together to serve the ends of peace and justice. 



PART II 

MORE niPORTAXT EVENTS IN AMERICAN 
FOREIGN RELATIONS 



PART II 

MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS IN AMERICAN 
FOREIGN RELATIONS 



1913- 

March 11. President Wilson announced the Administra- 

tion's policy toward the republics of Central 
and South America. (Statement No. i.) 

March 18. The Administration declined to request Ameri- 

can bankers to participate in the proposed Six- 
Power loan to China. (Statement No. 2.) 

April 4. The Japanese ambassador to the United States 

presented an informal protest against the pro- 
posed anti-alien land legislation in California. 

April 22. The President urged California authorities not 

to enact legislation discriminating against the 
Japanese. (Statement No. 3.) 

April 24. Secretary Bryan presented to the diplomatic 

corps in Washington the Administration's plans 
for the establishment of international peace. 
(Statement No. 4.) 

May 2. The United States recognised the Republic of 

China. 

May 9. The Japanese ambassador to the United States 

presented a formal protest against the anti- 
alien land bill passed by the California legisla- 
ture on May 3. 

May 9. Victoriano Huerta, provisional president of 

Mexico, denied diplomatic standing to the 
American ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, the 
United States not having recognized the de 
facto government of Mexico. 

May II. The President, through Secretary Bryan, urged 

Governor Johnson of California to withhold ap- 
proval of the anti-alien land bill. (Statement 
No. 5.) 

161 



1 62 

1913- 

May 19. 
May 19. 



May 30. 



May 


31 


June 


2. 


June 


4- 


June 


28 


July 


16. 


July 


19. 



August I. 
August 4. 
August 14. 

August 16. 
August 26. 

August 2^. 



MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS 

The California anti-alien land bill was signed 
by Governor Johnson. 

The United States, in reply to the Japanese pro- 
test of May p, maintained that the California 
anti-alien land law did not violate treaty rights 
of Japanese citizens. (Statement No. 6.) 
Secretary Bryan announced the receipt of 
favourable responses to the Administration's 
peace plan from Great Britain, France, Russia, 
Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Peru, Norzvay. 
The arbitration treaty with Great Britain was 
renewed. 

The Japanese ambassador to the United States 
informed Secretary Bryan that Japan accepted 
the peace plan in princij)lc. 
The Japanese ambassador to the United States 
presented a second formal protest against the 
California anti-alien land law. 
An agreement was signed at Washington for 
the renewal of the arbitration treaty between 
the United States and Japan. 
The United States replied to the Japanese pro- 
test of June 4. (Statement No. 7.) 
Secretary Bryan presented to the Senate Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations the draft of a pro- 
posed treaty ivith Nicaragua, which conferred 
upon the United States virtual control of Nica- 
ragua's foreign relations. 

General Huerta declared that he would neither 
resign nor permit foreign interference. 
President IVilson sent John Lind to Mexico as 
his personal representative. 

President Jf^ilson's suggestions for the restora- 
tion of order in Mexico were presented to 
General Huerta by Mr. Lind. 
General Huerta rejected the suggestions of the 
government of the United States. 
The Japanese ambassador to the United States 
presented another protest against the California 
legislation. 
The President addressed Congress upon the 



AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS 



163 



1913- 



September 30. 
Dctober 6. 

Dctober 14. 

Dctober 2^. 

December 2. 



1914. 
January 27, 



February 3, 
February 12. 
February 21. 



February 22. 



March 5. 



relations between the United States and Mex- 
ico. (Statement No. 8.) 

Japan again protested against the CaUfornia 
legislation. 

The President's message to the citizens of the 
Philippine Islands was delivered by Governor- 
General Harrison. (Statement No. 9.) 
President Wilson informed General Hiierta that 
the United States would not recognize the im- 
pending Mexican election as constitutional. 
President Wilson elaborated the Administra- 
tion's policy respecting Latin America in an ad- 
dress before the Southern Commercial Congress 
at Mobile. (Statement No. 12.) 
The President's annual address to the regular 
session of Congress dealt partly with the rela- 
tions of the United States with Mexico and 
its policy respecting its insular possessions. 
(Statement No. 13.) 

The United States landed marines in Haiti to 
aid in the maintenance of order during an in- 
surrection there. 

The President issued a proclamation lifting the 
embargo on the shipment of military supplies 
to Mexico. (Statement No. 14.) 
The United States formally recognized the pro- 
visional government established as a result of 
revolution in Peru. 

The United States Senate ratified the general 
arbitration treaties with Great Britain, Italy, 
Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and 
Switzerland, thus renewing those which had 
expired on various dates in ipiS. 
The British ambassador to the United States 
requested the Department of State to investi- 
gate the killing by Mexican revolutionists of a 
British subject named Benton. 
The President addressed Congress asking the 
repeal of the provision in the Panama Canal 
Act which exempted American coast-wise ship- 



i64 MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS 

1914. 

ping from the payment of canal tolls. (State- 
ment No. 15.) 

April 3. Mr. Lind left Vera Cruz for the United States. 

April 8. A treaty between the United States and Colom- 

bia was signed at Bogota. It would have 
awarded Colombia $25,000,000 for its losses 
through the revolt of Panama in 1903. 

April 14. TJie President ordered the Atlantic fleet to 

Tanipico, Mexico^ to enforce the demands made 
by United States oMcers as a result of attack on 
American sailors on April p. 

April 18. The United States demanded of General Hucrta 

compliance with its requests before 6 o'clock 
p.m., April ig. 

April 19. General Huerta refused to comply with the 

demands of the United States. 

April 20. The President addressed Congress on the Mexi- 

can situation. (Statement No. 16.) 

April 21. The President ordered the seizure of the cus- 

tom house at I'cra Cruz. 

April 22, Nelson O'Shaughnessy, charge d'affaires of the 

United States at Mexico City, was handed his 
passports by the Huerta government. I 

April 23. The Mexican charge at Washington asked for 

and received his passports from the United 
States Department of State. 

April 23. The President restored the embargo on the 

shipment of military supplies into Mexico. 

April 25. The United States accepted the offer of Argen- 

tina, Brazil and Chile to mediate between it 
and Mexico. 

June 10. The Japanese ambassador to the United States 

reminded the Department of State that Japan's 
last protest against the California anti-alien 
land tenure legislation remained unanswered. 

June 15. The President signed the repeal of the tolls 

exemption provision of the Payiama Canal Act 
passed by Congress, June 11 and 12. 

July I. The conference at Niagara Falls inaugurated 

by Argentina, Brazil and Chile to bring about 
a resolution of the difficulties between the 



AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS 165 

1914. 

United States atid Mexico came to an end with- 
out positive results. 

July 4. President Wilson discussed the principles un- 

derlying his foreign policy in an address at 
Philadelphia. (Statement No. 20.) 

July 5. General Huerta was re-elected president of 

Mexico. He resigned July 15 and left Mexico 
July 20 on a German warship. 

July 24. Arbitration treaties were signed at Washing- 

ton with representatives of Argentina, Brazil 
and Chile. 

August 4. The President issued a proclamation of the neu- 

trality of the United States in the European 
war. 

August 5. President Wilson informed the rulers of the 

belligerent European powers that the United 
States would welcome an opportunity to act in 
the interest of European peace. 

August 6. The United States presented an identic note 

to the belligerent powers suggesting general 
acceptance of the lazvs of naval warfare laid 
down in the Declaration of London. 

August 10. President Wilson sent a commission of per- 

sonal representatives to the Dominican Repub- 
lic with a plan for the restoration of peace in 
that country. 

August 13. The United States Senate ratified treaties zvith 

eighteen countries providing for commissions 
of inquiry. 

August 15. Secretary Bryan announced that the Adminis- 

tration considered that lending money by Ameri- 
can bankers to belligerent powers was incon- 
sistent with the true spirit of neutrality. 

August 18. President Wilson issued to the American peo- 

ple a statement respecting their conduct as neu- 
trals. (Statement No. 21.) 

August 22. The United States transmitted to Japan a state- 

ment of its attitude toward Japan's operations 
in German territory in China. 

September 15. Treaties for commissions of inquiry were 
signed at Washington with representatives of 



i66 



MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS 



1914. 



September 15. 
September 16. 

October i. 

October 19. 
October 22. 



November 23. 
December 8. 

December 26. 



1915. 
January 7. 

January 20. 



February 4. 



Great Britain, France, Spain and China. Those 
with Great Britain, France and Spain were 
ratified by the United States Senate September 
25, 1914. 

The President ordered the withdrawal of 
United States troops from Vera Cruz. 
President Wilson in reply to the protests of 
Germany and Belgium stated the attitude of the 
United States concerning violations of the rules 
of warfare. (Statement No. 22.) 
A treaty with Russia providing for a commis- 
sion of inquiry, was signed at Washington. It 
was ratified by the United States Senate 
October 13. 

United States Marines were landed in Haiti to 
maintain order. 

The United States informed Great Britain that 
its suggestion regarding the Declaration of Lon- 
don was withdrawn, and that it zvould base its 
rights on the existing rules of international law. 
{Same to Germany October 24.) 
The United States troops were withdrawn from 
Vera Cruz. 

The President's annual message to Congress 
dealt in part ivith development of trade zvith 
Latin America and with increased self-govern- 
ment in the Philippines. (Statement No. 24.) 
The United States entered a general protest to 
Great Britain against the British naval policy 
toward neutral shipping. (Statement No. 25.) 

Great Britain rephed to the United States note 

of December 26, 1914. 

Secretary Bryan in a letter to Senator Stone 

denied the charges of discrimination by the 

United States against Germany and Austria. 

(Statement No. 27.) 

The German Admiralty issued a proclamation 

declaring a " war zone " about the British Isles 

and warning neutral ships of the dangers 

therein ; to take effect February 18. 



AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS 



167 



1915- 
February 10. 



February 10. 



10. 



16. 



February 
February 
February 20 

March i. 

March 15. 

March 30. 

April 4. 



April 21. 
May 13. 

May 28. 
June 2. 

June 9. 



The United States protested to Great Britain 
against the use of the American Hag on a Brit- 
ish vessel, the Lusitania. 

The United States protested to Germany in de- 
fence of the rights of American citizens on the 
high seas. (Statement No. 29.) 
Great Britain made a more complete reply to 
the United States note of December 26, 1914. 
Germany replied to the American protest re- 
garding its " war zone " decree. 
The United States addressed identic notes to 
Great Britain and Germany suggesting a modus 
vivendi in naval zvarfare. (Statement No. 30.) 
Germany replied to the American proposal of 
February 20, accepting it on condition that 
Great Britain make concessions. 
Great Britain in a note to the United States re- 
fused to make the concessions asked by Ger- 
many. 

The United States replied to the British notes 
of March /j and 15 respecting the Orders in 
Council governing trade with Germany. 
The German ambassador to the United States 
delivered to the Department of State a memo- 
randum on the American attitude respecting 
British interference with American commerce 
and American trade in munitions of war. 
TJic United States replied to the note of the 
German ambassador of April 4. (Statement 
No. 34.) 

The United States presented to Germany a note 
protesting against the submarine policy which 
culminated in the sinking of the Lusitania on 
May 7. (Statement No. 36.) 
Germany replied to the American note of May 

13- 

The United States addressed a note to the war- 
ring factions in Mexico advising the leaders to 
come to an early agreement. (Statement No. 

38.) 

The United States presented to Germany a sec- 



i68 MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS 

1915. 

ond note upon the sinking of the Lusitania. 

(Statement No. 39.) 

June 22. Great Britain submitted a memorandum to the 

Department of State denying that there was 
substantial loss to neutral shipping on account 
of its Orders in Council. 

July 8. Germany replied to the American note of 

June 9. 

July 21. The United States presented a third note to 

Germany upon the sinking of the Lusitania. 
(Statement No. 40.) 

July 28. United States marines were landed in Haiti on 

account of insurrections there. 

August 5. Representatives of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, 

Chile, Guatemala and Uruguay met with Sec- 
retary Lansing to consider means of ending 
chaos in Mexico. 

August II. A joint appeal by Secretary Lansing and the 

representatiz'es of six South American States 
was dispatched to the leaders of the Mexicaii 
factions. (Statement No. 41.) 

September i. The German ambassador to the United States 
announced that thereafter liners would not be 
sunk without warning by German submarines. 
Endorsed by the German foreign office Sept. 14. 

1915- 

The United States demanded the recall of the 

Austro-Hiingarian ambassador, Dr. Constantin 

Theodor Diimba. 

After conference. Secretary Lansing and the 

representatives of six South American states 

agreed to recognize as the de facto government 

of Mexico the faction which at the end of 

three weeks had best demonstrated its ability 

to maintain order. 

October 9. The conference of representatives of the United 

States and six South American states decided 
to recognize General Venustiano Carranza as 
provisional president of Mexico. 

October 19. The United States recognised the Carranza gov- 



Septembcr 8. 
September 18. 



AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS 



169 



1915- 
October 21, 



November 4. 



November 29. 



December 7. 



December 10, 



1916. 

January 6. 



January 7. 



January 18. 



February 10. 



ernment as the de facto government of Mexico. 
The United States presented an important note 
to Great Britain in which, after protesting again 
against British interference with American 
shipping, it assumed the task of championing 
neutral rights. (Statement No. 45.) 
President Wilson, in an address before the Man- 
hattan Club at New York, presented the Admin- 
istration's preparedness program. (Statement 
No. 46.) 

The German government notified Ambassador 
Gerard that American vessels would be sunk 
only when carrying absolute contraband and 
when passengers and crew could reach port 
safely. 

The President's annual address to the regular 
session of Congress dealt with preparedness for 
defence. (Statement No. 47.) 
In conformity with demands of the United 
States the German government recalled Cap- 
tains Boy-Ed and von Papen, attaches of the 
German embassy at Washington, on account of 
improper activities. 

President IVilson, in an address before the sec- 
ond Pan-American Scientific Congress in Wash- 
ington, declared that the states of North and 
South America should unite in guaranteeing to 
each other political independence and territorial 
integrity. (Statement No. 48.) 
The German ambassador to the United States 
announced that submarines in the Mediter- 
ranean had received orders to conform to gen- 
eral principles of international law. 
The United States, in confidential informal 
notes to the Entente Allies, asked whether those 
governments wotdd subscribe to a declaration of 
principles regarding sub7narine warfare therein 
set forth. (Statement No. 49.) 
The German and Austro-Hungarian govern- 



170 



1916. 



February 15. 
February 18. 
February 24. 

February 28. 
March 13. 
;March 15. 
March 23. 
March 25. 

April 10. 

April 18. 

April 19. 
April 21. 

May 4. 



MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS 

ments notified the United States of their inten- 
tion to treat armed merchantment as war ves- 
sels after February 29. 

The Administration declared the right of Ameri- 
can citizens to travel on belligerent merchant 
vessels armed for defence. 

The United States Senate ratified a treaty with 
Nicaragua respecting its canal route and a 
naval base. 

President IVilson, in a letter to Senator Stone, 
defended the right of American citizens to 
travel on armed merchantmen. (Statement 
No. 51.) 

The United States Senate ratified a treaty with 
Haiti respecting finance and police in that re- 
public. 

The United States accepted General Carranza's 
proposed reciprocal agreement for the pursuit 
of bandits across the Mexican frontier. 
The United States sent a punitive expedition 
into Mexico in pursuit of Villa, who had at- 
tacked Columbus, N. M., March p. 
The Entente Allies replied rejecting the pro- 
posals of the United States in the confidential 
note of January 18. 

The Department of State issued a memorandum 
defining the status of armed merchant vessels. 
Made public April 26, ipi6. (Statement No. 

The German reply to American inquiry as to 
the sinking of the Sussex, March 24, denied 
that a German submarine was responsible. 
The United States addressed an ultimatum to 
Germany regarding its submarine policy. 
(Statement No. 56.) 

The President addressed the Congress on the 
relations with Germany. (Statement No. 57.) 
The Japanese ambassador to the United States 
presented a protest against certain provisions in 
the immigration bill pending in Congress. 
The German reply to the American note of 



AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS 171 

1916. 

April 18 agreed to the contention of the United 
States with conditions. 

May 8. The United States accepted the assurances in 

the German note of May 4, but rejected the 
conditions. (Statement No. 58.) 

May 22. The de facto government of Mexico protested 

to the United States against the violation of 
Mexican sovereignty and insisted on the im- 
mediate withdrawal of United States forces. 

May 27. President Wilson, in an address before the 

League to Enforce Peace, at IVashington, de- 
clared that the United States was willing to 
join any feasible association of nations for 
the purpose of guaranteeing territorial and 
political integrity of states and to preserve 
peace. (Statement No, 60.) 

June 20. The United States in reply to the Mexican note 

of May 22 refused to withdraw its punitive 
expedition while anarchy continued in northern 
Mexico. 

June 21. The United States, in a note to Austria-Hun- 

gary, demanded an apology and reparation for 
the attack on the American steamer Petrolite 
by an Austrian submarine. 

June 22. The United States informed the South Ameri- 

can states that the object of the punitive ex- 
pedition in Mexico was not intervention in 
Mexican affairs but defence of American ter- 
ritory. 

June 25. The United States asked of the de facto gov- 

ernment of Mexico a statement of its intended 
course of action respecting the punitive ex- 
pedition and demanded release of American 
soldiers taken as prisoners at Carrizal, June 21, 
Prisoners released June 28. 

July 4. The de facto government of Mexico suggested 

mediation by Latin American states of its dif- 
ferences with the United States. 

July 7. The United States replied to the Mexican note 

of July 4, agreeing to the proposal for nego- 
tiations. 



172 

I9I6. 
July 28. 



August 29. 
August 31. 

September 2. 

September 7. 
September 14. 



November 24. 

December 16. 
December 18. 

December 21. 



December 26. 



MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS 

The United States, in reply to the Mexican 
note of July 11, accepted the proposal of a 
joint commission to settle outstanding differ- 
ences. 

The President signed the act of Congress in- 
creasing the participation of the people of the 
Philippines in their government. 
The United States, in reply to the Entente notes 
of August 22, declared the existing rules of 
international law applicable to submarines in 
American ports. 

President Wilson, in his speech accepting the 
Democratic nomination for the presidency, de- 
fended the foreign policy of the Administration 
and restated its principles. (Statement No. 67.) 
The United States Senate ratified the treaty 
providing for the purchase of the Danish West 
Indies. 

The Department of State at Washington an- 
nounced that in response to its inquiry Japan 
and Russia had given assurances that the new 
Russo-Japanese convention was not intended to 
modify the " Open Door" in China. 
The protocol, signed by the United States and 
Mexican Commissioners, provided for the with- 
drawal of United States troops if order were 
restored in northern Mexico. 
The President transmitted to the Entente Allies 
the German offer to negotiate peace made De- 
cember 12. 

The President suggested to the nations at war 
that they make an avozval of their respective 
views as to the terms upon which the war might 
be ended. (Statement No. 79.) 
Secretary Lansing issued a statement declaring 
that the United States was being drawn 
" nearer to the verge of war." In a later 
statement he denied that the United States 
government was considering any change in its 
policy of neutrality. 
The German reply to the note of the President 



AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS 



173 



1916. 



1917. 
January 10. 



January 11. 



January 13. 



contained no statement of terms and proposed 
a conference of belligerents. 

The reply of the Entente Allies to the note of 
the President indicated the arrangements, guar- 
antees, and acts of reparation upon which a sat- 
isfactory peace might be based. 
The United States received from Germany a 
communication in which the German attitude 
toward a settlement of the war was made 
more clear. 

Great Britain, in a supplemental reply to the 
President's note of December 18, 1916, ampli- 
fied the terms on which a durable peace might 
be based. International co-operation to pre- 
serve peace was suggested. 

January 15. The American-Mexican joint commission was 
dissolved after endeavouring for four months 
to reach an agreement on border control. 

January 22. The President addressed the Senate giving his 
idea of the steps necessary for world peace. 
(Statement No. 80.) 

January 31. Germany announced the renewal of unrestricted 
submarine warfare within a large war zone. 

February 2. Anti-alien land tenure bills were withdrawn in 
the Idaho and Oregon legislatures after pro- 
test on the part of the Japanese ambassador. 

February 3. The United States severed diplomatic relations 
zvith Germany. The President addressed Con- 
gress on the subject. (Statement No. 81.) 

February 4. The United States Department of State sug- 
gested to neutral nations that they take action 
against Germany similar to that of the United 
States. 

February 5. The United States punitive expedition in Mex- 
ico returned to American territory. 

February 12. The United States Department of State, in re- 
ply to a communication from the Szviss min- 
ister, announced that it zvoidd refuse to discuss 
matters of difference with Germany unless 
Germany first recalled its decree of January 31. 



174 MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS 

1917. 

February 14. The United States government announced that 
it would 'not recognize a government in Cuba 
set up as a result of organized revolt. 

February 2.6. The President requested of Congress the power 
to arm merchant ships. (Statement No. 82.) 

March i. The President informed the Senate that the 

" Zimmcrmann note," proposing an alliance be- 
tween Germany and Mexico dated January ig, 
was authentic. 

March 5. The second inaugural address of President Wil- 

son dealt ivith basic principles of American 
policy. (Statement No. ^2>-) 

March 12. The United States government announced an 

armed guard would be placed on all American 
merchant vessels sailing through the "war 
zone." 

March 22. The United States formally recognized the new 

government of Russia set up as a result of 
revolution. 

March 26. The United States refused the proposal of 

Germany to interpret and supplement the Prus- 
sian treaty of i/pQ. 

April 2. The President addressed the Congress asking 

it to declare the existence of a state of war 
with Germany. (Statement No. 84.) 

April 6. The President signed the joint resolution of 

Congress and issued a proclamation declaring 
the existence of a state of war with Germany. 

April 8. Austria-Hungary announced that it had decided 

to sever diplomatic relations with the United 
States. 

April 15. President IVilson in a message to the American 

people asks them to ''speak, act and serve to- 
gether." (Statement No. 85.) 

April 20. The Turkish government announced that it had 

decided to sever diplomatic relations with the 
United States. 

June 9. A communication from President Wilson sent 

to the provisional government of Russia by the 
United States mission to Russia zvas made pub- 
lic at Washington. (Statement No. 88.) 



AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS 175 

1917. 
June 14. President Wilson, in an address at Washington, 

amplified the case of neutrals against Germany. 

(Statement No. 89.) 
July 29. Secretary Lansing, in an address at Madison 

Barracks, N. Y., related the immediate causes 

for the entrance of the United States into the 

war to the deeper meaning of the conflict. 
August I. Pope Benedict XV addressed a peace note to the 

powers at war. 
August 2y. President Wilson replied to the Pope's note of 

August I. (Statement No. 90.) 



PART III 

MORE IMPORTANT UTTERANCES OF 
THE ADMINISTRATION 



TOPICAL GUIDE TO STATEMENTS 

(See also the Table of Contents) 
General Topic Statement Number 

General Principles and Purpose of For- lo, ii, 2o, 24, 26, 28, 35, 

eign Policy 37, 42, 47, 52, 55, 59, 61, 

62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 
69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 
76, 77, 78, 83 

International Peace 4, 13, 17 

Relations with Latin America . . . .1,12,48 

Relations with Mexico ;-8, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 

<38, 41, 53 

Interests in the Far East * 2, 9, 13 

Relations with Japan 3, 5, 6, 7 

American Neutrality 21, 22, 31, 32, 33 

Relations with Great Britain . . . ,- 15, 25, 30, 45, 49, 51, 54 
Relations with Germany .... V" 27, 29, 30, 34, 36, 39, 40, 

49, 51, 54, 56, 57, 58, 81, 
S2, 84, 85, 89 

Preparedness for Defence 43, 44, 46, 50 

League of Nations 23, 33, 60, 7Q, 80, 90 

Aims of the United States in the War . 86, 87, 88, 90 



PART III 

RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH 
LATIN AMERICA 

I. Statement of President Wilson. March ii, ipij 
(American Journal of International Law, VII, 331) 

In view of questions which are naturally uppermost in 
the public mind just now, the President issues the follow- 
ing statement : 

One of the chief objects of my administration will be to 
cultivate the friendship and deserve the confidence of our 
sister republics of Central and South America, and to pro- 
mote in every proper and honorable way the interests which 
are common to the peoples of the two continents. I ear- 
nestly desire the most cordial understanding and co-opera- 
tion between the peoples and leaders of America and, 
therefore, deem it my duty to make this brief statement. 

Co-operation is possible only when supported at every 
turn by the orderly processes of just government based 
upon law, not upon arbitrary or irregular force. We hold, 
as I am sure all thoughtful leaders of republican govern- 
ment everywhere hold, that just government rests always 
upon the consent of the governed, and that there can be no 
freedom without order based upon law and upon the public 
conscience and approval. We shall look to make these prin- 
ciples the basis of mutual intercourse, respect, and helpful- 
ness between our sister republics and ourselves. We shall 
lend our influence of every kind to the realization of these 
principles in fact and practice, knowing that disorder, per- 
sonal intrigue and defiance of constitutional rights weaken 

179 



i8o STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

and discredit government and injure none so much as the 
people who are unfortunate enough to have their common 
hfe and their common affairs so tainted and disturbed. We 
can have no sympathy with those who seek to seize the 
power of government to advance their own personal inter- 
ests or ambition. We are the friends of peace, but we 
know that there can be no lasting or stable peace in such 
circumstances. As friends, therefore, we shall prefer those 
who act in the interests of peace and honor, who protect 
private rights and respect the restraints of constitutional 
provision. Mutual respect seems to us the indispensable 
foundation of friendship between states, as between indi- 
viduals. 

The United States has nothing to seek in Central and 
South America except the lasting interests of the peoples 
of the two continents, the security of governments intended 
for the people and for no special group or interest, and the 
development of personal and trade relationships between 
the two continents which shall redound to the profit and 
advantage of both and interfere with the rights and liberties 
of neither. 

From these principles may be read so much of the future 
policy of this government as it is necessary now to fore- 
cast ; and in the spirit of these principles I may, I hope, be 
permitted with as much confidence as earnestness to extend 
to the governments of all the republics of America the hand 
of genuine disinterested friendship and to pledge my own 
honor and the honor of my colleagues to every enterprise 
of peace and amity that a fortunate future may disclose. 



CHINESE LOAN i8i 

AMERICAN BANKERS AND LOANS TO CHINA 

2. Statement of President Wilson, March i8, ipi^ 
(American Journal of International Law, VII, 338.) 

We are informed that at the request of the last adminis- 
tration a certain group of American bankers undertook to 
participate in the loan now desired by the Government of 
China (approximately $125,000,000). . . . The present ad- 
ministration has been asked by this group of bankers whether 
it would also request them to participate in the loan. The 
representatives of the bankers through whom the adminis- 
tration was approached declared that they would continue 
to seek their share of the loan under the proposed agree- 
ments only if expressly requested to do so by the govern- 
ment. The administration has declined to make such re- 
quest because it did not approve the conditions of the loan 
or the implications of responsibihty on its own part which 
it was plainly told would be involved in the request.^ 

The conditions of the loan seem to us to touch very 
nearly the administrative independence of China itself ; and 
this administration does not feel that it ought, even by im- 
plication, to be a party to those conditions. The responsi- 
bility on its part which would be implied in requesting the 
bankers to undertake the loan might conceivably go to the 
length in some unhappy contingency of forcible interfer- 
ence in the financial, and even the political, affairs of that 
great oriental state, just now awakening to a consciousness 
of its power and of its obligations to its people. The condi- 
tions include not only the pledging of particular taxes, some 
of them antiquated and burdensome, to secure the loan, but 
also the administration of those taxes by foreign agents. 

1 The official announcement of the withdrawal of the American 
group of bankers, issued March 19, 1913, may be found in Com- 
mercial and Financial Chronicle, XCVI, 825. 



i82 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

The responsibility on the part of our government impHed 
in the encouragement of a loan thus secured and adminis- 
tered is plain enough and is obnoxious to the principles upon 
which the government of our people rests. 

The Government of the United States is not only willing, 
but earnestly desirous, of aiding the great Chinese people in 
every way that is consistent with their untrammeled de- 
velopment and its own immemorial principles. The awak- 
ening of the people of China to a consciousness of their 
possibilities under free government is the most significant, 
if not the most momentous event of our generation. With 
this movement and aspiration the American people are in 
profound sympathy. They certainly wish to participate, and 
participate very generously, in opening to the Chinese and 
to the use of the world the almost untouched and perhaps 
unrivalled resources of China. 

The Government of the United States is earnestly desir- 
ous of promoting the most extended and intimate trade 
relationships between this country and the Chinese Republic. 
. . . This is the main material interest of its citizens in the 
development of China. Our interests are those of the open 
door — a door of friendship and mutual advantage. This 
is the only door we care to enter. 



ANTI-ALIEN LAND TENURE LEGISLATION IN 

CALIFORNIA 

3. Extract from Telegram of the President to Governor 
Johnson of California. April 22, ipi^ 

(New York Times, April 22, 1913) 
. . . I . . . appeal with the utmost confidence to the peo- 
ple, the Governor, and the Legislature of California to act in 
the matter now under consideration in a manner that can- 



PLANS FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE 183 

not from any point of view be fairly challenged or called 
in question. If they deem it necessary to exclude all aliens 
who have not declared their intention to become citizens 
from the privileges of land ownership they can do so along 
lines already followed in the laws of many of the other 
States and of many foreign countries, including Japan her- 
self. Insidious discrimination will inevitably draw in ques- 
tion the treaty obligations of the Government of the United 
States. . . . 



ADMINISTRATION'S PLANS FOR INTERNA- 
TIONAL PEACE 

4. Statement of Secretary Bryan to the Press. 
April 24, 191 s 

{Commercial and Financial Chronicle, XCVI, 1184) 

The statement presented to the representatives [i. e., the 
diplomatic corps at Washington] is only intended to set 
forth the main proposition, namely that the President de- 
sires to enter into an agreement with each nation severally 
for the investigation of all questions of every nature what- 
ever. This agreement is intended to supplement the arbitra- 
tion treaties now in existence and those that may be made 
hereafter. Arbitration treaties always exempt some ques- 
tion from arbitration. The agreement proposed by the 
President is intended to close the gap and leave no dispute 
that can become a cause of war without investigation. 

It will be noticed that each party is to reserve the right 
to act independently after the report is submitted, but it is 
not likely that a nation will declare war after it has had 
an opportunity to confer during the investigation with the 
opposing nation. 

But whether or not the proposed agreement accomplishes 



i84 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

as much as is hoped for it, it is at least a step in the direc- 
tion of universal peace, and I am pleased to be the agent 
through whom the President presents this proposition to 
the Powers represented here.^ 



ANTI-ALIEN LAND TENURE LEGISLATION IN 

CALIFORNIA 

5. Extract from Telegram of Secretary Bryan to Gov- 

ernor Johnson of California. May 11, 1913 

{New York Times, May 12, 1913) 

... He [the President] is fully alive to the importance 
of removing any root of discord which may create antag- 
onism between American citizens and the subjects of Orien- 
tal nations residing here, but he is impelled by a sense of 
duty to express the hope that you will see fit to allow time 
for diplomatic effort. 

The nations affected by the proposed law are friendly 
nations — nations that have shown themselves willing to 
co-operate in the establishment of harmonious relations be- 
tween their people and ours. . . . 

6. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Bryan 

to the Japanese Ambassador at JVasJiington. 
May ig, 1913 

{American-Japanese Discussions Relating to Land Tenure Law of 
California, Department of State, p. 5) 

The Government of the United States regrets most sin- 
cerely that the Imperial Government of Japan should regard 

1 The plan in detail may be found in the text of the first of the 
treaties, pubHshed in American Journal of International Law, VII, 
824-5- 



CALIFORNIA LAND LAW (ANTI-ALIEN) 185 

this legislation as an indication of unfriendliness toward 
their people. . . . 

... we feel that the Imperial Government has been mis- 
led in its interpretation of the spirit and object of the legis- 
lation in question. It is not political. It is not part of any 
general national policy which would indicate unfriendliness 
or any purpose inconsistent with the best and most cordial 
understanding between the two nations. It is wholly eco- 
nomic. It is based upon the particular economic conditions 
existing in California as interpreted by her own people, who 
wish to avoid certain conditions of competition in their agri- 
cultural activities. 

. . . your note ^ calls attention to certain provisions of 
the California law which you conceive to be inconsistent 
with and to violate existing treaty stipulations between the 
two countries, and thus to threaten to impair vested rights 
of property. The law, however, in terms purports to re- 
spect and preserve all rights under existing treaties. Such 
is its declared intent. But in case it should be alleged that 
the law had in its operation failed to accomplish that intent, 
your Government is no doubt advised that by the Consti- 
tution of the United States the stipulations of treaties made 
in pursuance thereof are the supreme law of the land, and 
that they are expressly declared to be binding upon State 
and Federal courts alike to the end that they may be judi- 
cially enforced in all cases. For this purpose the courts. 
Federal and State, are open to all persons who may feel 
themselves to have been deprived of treaty rights and 
guarantees ; and in this respect the alien enjoys under our 
laws a privilege which to one of our own citizens may not 
be in all cases available, namely, the privilege of suing in 

1 The full text of this note dated May 9, 1913, may be found in 
Anicrican-Japauesc Discussions Relating to Land Tenure Law of 
California, Department of State, p. 3. 



i86 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

the Federal courts. In precisely the same way, our citi- 
zens resort and are obliged to resort to the courts for the 
enforcement of their constitutional and legal rights. Ar- 
ticle XIV of the treaty, to which your excellency refers, 
appears to relate solely to the rights of commerce and navi- 
gation. These the California statute does not appear to 
be designed in any way to afifect. The authors of the law 
seem to have been careful to guard against any invasion of 
contractual rights. 

Your excellency raises, very naturally and properly, the 
question how the case would stand should explicit treaties 
between the two countries expire or cease to be in force 
while, nevertheless, relations of entire amity and good will 
still continue to exist between them. I can only reply that 
in such circumstances the Government of the United States 
would always deem it its pleasure, as well as a manifest 
dictate of its cordial friendship for Japan and the Japanese 
people, to safeguard the riglits of trade and intercourse be- 
tween the two peoples now secured by treaty. I need not 
assure your excellency that this Government will co-operate 
with the Imperial Government in every possible way to 
maintain with the utmost cordiaHty the understandings which 
bind the two nations together in honor and in interest. 
Its obligations of friendship would not be lessened or per- 
formed in niggardly fashion in any circumstances. It val- 
ues too highly the regard of Japan and her co-operation in 
the great peaceful tasks of the modern world to jeopard 
them in any way ; and I feel that I can assure your excel- 
lency that there is no reason to feel that its policy in such 
matters would be embarrassed or interfered with by the 
legislation of any State of the Union. The economic policy 
of a single State with regard to a single kind of property 
can not turn aside these strong and abiding currents of 
generous and profitable intercourse and good feeling. . . . 



CALIFORNIA LAND LAW (ANTI-ALIEN) 187 

7. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Bryan 

to the Japanese Ambassador at Washington. 

July 16, ipis 

{American-Japanese Discussions Relating to Land Tenure Law of 
California, Department of State, p. 15) 

In my note of the 19th of May I did not omit to 
point out that the CaUfornia statute, far from being indica- 
tive of any national discriminatory policy, was not even to 
be regarded as an expression of political or racial antago- 
nism, but was rather to be considered as the emanation of 
economic conditions, which were in this instance of a local 
character. I can not help feeling that in the representa- 
tions submitted by your excellency ^ the supposition of racial 
discrimination occupies a position of prominence which it 
does not deserve and which is not justified by the facts. I 
am quite prepared to admit that all differences between 
human beings — differences in appearance, differences in 
manner, differences in speech, differences in opinion, differ- 
ences in nationality, and differences in race — may provoke a 
certain antagonism ; but none of these differences is likely 
to produce serious results unless it becomes associated with 
an interest of a contentious nature, such as that of the 
struggle for existence. In this economic contest the division 
no doubt may often take place on racial lines, but it does so 
not because of racial antagonism but because of the circum- 
stance that the traditions and habits of different races have 
developed or diminished competitive efficiency. The contest 
is economic ; the racial difference is a mere mark or incident 
of the economic struggle. 

1 The representations here referred to consist of a note by the 
Japanese ambassador dated June 4, 191 3, pubhshed in Department of 
State, American-Japanese Discussions Relating to Land Tenure Law 
of California, p. 6. 



i88 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

All nations recognize this fact, and it is for this reason 
that each nation is permitted to determine who shall and who 
shall not be permitted to settle in its dominions and become 
a part of the body politic, to the end that it may preserve 
internal peace and avoid the contentions which are so likely 
to disturb the harmony of international relations. 

That the Imperial Government of Japan accept and act 
upon these principles precise proof is not wanting. . . . 

In connection with the question of land ownership your 
excellency refers to the subject of naturalization in the 
United States, . . . Your excellency very properly ac- 
knowledges the fact that the question of naturalization " is 
a political problem of national and not international con- 
cern." 

I gladly assume that your excellency, in saying that Jap- 
anese subjects are " as a nation " denied the right to acquire 
American nationality, has not intended to convey the im- 
pression that the naturalization laws of the United States 
make any distinction that may be specifically considered as 
national either in terms or in efTect. Nor would it appear, 
if the legal provisions in question were historically exam- 
ined, that the Government and people of Japan have any 
ground to feel that any discrimination against them was 
intended. . . . 



RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH 

MEXICO 

8. Address of the President to the Congress. 

August 2/, ipij 

(Congressional Record, L, 3803) 
Gentlemen of the Congress, it is clearly my duty to lay 
before you, very fully and without reservation, the facts 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO 189 

concerning our present relations with the Republic of Mex- 
ico. The deplorable posture of affairs in Mexico I need 
not describe, but I deem it my duty to speak very frankly of 
what this Government has done and should seek to do in 
fulfillment of its obligation to Mexico herself, as a friend 
and neighbor, and to American citizens whose lives and 
vital interests are daily affected by the distressing conditions 
which now obtain beyond our southern border. 

Those conditions touch us very nearly. Not merely be- 
cause they lie at our very doors. That of course makes us 
more vividly and more constantly conscious of them, and 
every instinct of neighborly interest and sympathy is 
aroused and quickened by them ; but that is only one element 
in the determination of our duty. We are glad to call our- 
selves the friends of Mexico, and we shall, I hope, have 
many an occasion, in happier times as well as in these days 
of trouble and confusion, to show that our friendship is 
genuine and disinterested, capable of sacrifice and every 
generous manifestation. The peace, prosperity, and con- 
tentment of Mexico mean more, much more, to us than 
merely an enlarged field for our commerce and enterprise. 
They mean an enlargement of the field of self-government 
and the realization of the hopes and rights of a nation with 
whose best aspirations, so long suppressed and disappointed, 
we deeply sympathize. We shall yet prove to the Mexican 
people that we know how to serve them without first think- 
ing how we shall serve ourselves. 

But we are not the only friends of Mexico. The whole 
world desires her peace and progress ; and the whole world 
is interested as never before. Mexico lies at last where all 
the world looks on. Central America is about to be touched 
by the great routes of the world's trade and intercourse 
running free from ocean to ocean at the Isthmus. The 
future has much in store for Mexico, as for all the States of 



190 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

Central America ; but the best gifts can come to her only if 
she be ready and free to receive them and to enjoy them 
honorably. America in particular — America north and 
south and upon both continents — waits upon the develop- 
ment of Mexico ; and that development can be sound and 
lasting only if it be the product of a genuine freedom, a 
just and ordered government founded upon law. Only so 
can it be peaceful or fruitful of the benefits of peace. Mex- 
ico has a great and enviable future before her, if only she 
choose and attain the paths of honest constitutional gov- 
ernment. 

The present circumstances of the Republic, I deeply re- 
gret to say, do not seem to promise even the foundations 
of such a peace. We have waited many months, months 
full of peril and anxiety, for the conditions there to im- 
prove, and they have not improved. They have grown 
worse, rather. The territory in some sort controlled by 
the provisional authorities at Mexico City has grown 
smaller, not larger. The prospect of the pacification of the 
country, even by arms, has seemed to grow more and more 
remote ; and its pacification by the authorities at the capital 
is evidently impossible by any other means than force. Diffi- 
culties more and more entangle those who claim to consti- 
tute the legitimate government of the Republic. They have 
not made good their claim in fact. Their successes in the 
field have proved only temporary. War and disorder, devas- 
tation and confusion, seem to threaten to become the settled 
fortune of the distracted country. As friends we could 
wait not longer for a solution which every week seemed 
further away. It was our duty at least to volunteer our 
good offices — to oflfer to assist, if we might, in efifecting 
some arrangement which would bring relief and peace and 
set up a universally acknowledged political authority there. 

Accordingly, I took the liberty of sending the Hon. John 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO 191 

Lind, formerly governor of Minnesota, as my personal 
spokesman and representative, to the City of Mexico, with 
the following instructions : 

Press very earnestly upon the attention of those who are now ex- 
ercising authority or wielding influence in Mexico the following 
considerations and advice : 

The Government of the United States does not feel at liberty 
any longer to stand inactively by while it becomes daily more and 
more evident that no real progress is being made toward the estab- 
lishment of a government at the City of Mexico which the country 
will obey and respect. 

The Government of the United States does not stand in the same 
case with the other great Governments of the world in respect of 
what is happening or what is likely to happen in Mexico. We offer 
our good offices, not only because of our genuine desire to play 
the part of a friend, but also because we are expected by the powers 
of the world to act as Mexico's nearest friend. 

We wish to act in these circumstances in the spirit of the most 
earnest and disinterested friendship. It is our purpose in whatever 
we do or propose in this perplexing and distressing situation not 
only to pay the most scrupulous regard to the sovereignty and 
independence of Mexico — that we take as a matter of course to 
wiiich we are bound by every obligation of right and honor — 
but also to give every possible evidence that we act in the interest 
of Mexico alone, and not in the interest of any person or body 
of persons who may have personal or property claims in Mexico 
which they may feel that they have the right to press. We are 
seeking to counsel Mexico for her own good and in the interest 
of her own peace, and not for any other purpose whatever. The 
Government of the United States would deem itself discredited if 
it had any selfish or ulterior purpose in transactions where the 
peace, happiness, and prosperity of a whole people are involved. 
It is acting as its friendship for JMexico, not as any selfish interest, 
dictates. 

The present situation in Mexico is incompatible with the fulfill- 
ment of international obligations on the part of Mexico, with the 
civilized development of Mexico herself, and with the maintenance 
of tolerable political and economic conditions in Central America. 
It is upon no common occasion, therefore, that the United States 
offers her counsel and assistance. All America cries out for a 
settlement. 

A satisfactory settlement seems to us to be conditioned on — 

(a) An immediate cessation of fighting throughout Mexico, a 



192 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

definite armistice solemnly entered into and scrupulously observed, 

(b) Security given for an early and free election in which all will 
agree to take part. 

(c) The consent of Gen. Huerta to bind himself not to be a 
candidate for election as President of the Republic at this election. 

(d) The agreement of all parties to abide by the results of the 
election and cooperate in the most loyal way in organizing and sup- 
porting the new administration. 

The Government of the United States will be glad to play any 
part in this settlement or in its carrying out which it can play 
honorably and consistently with international right. It pledges 
itself to recognize and in every way possible and proper to assist 
the administration chosen and set up in Mexico in the way and 
on the conditions suggested. 

Taking all the existing conditions into consideration, the Gov- 
ernment of the United States can conceive of no reasons sufficient 
to justify those who are now attempting to shape the policy or 
exercise the authority of Mexico in declining the offices of friend- 
ship thus olTered. Can Mexico give the civilized world a satis- 
factory reason for rejecting our good offices? If Mexico can 
suggest any better way in which to show our friendship, serve the 
people of Mexico, and meet our international obligations, we are 
more than willing to consider the suggestion. 

Mr. Lind executed his delicate and difficult mission with 
singular tact, firmness, and good judgment, and made clear 
to the authorities at the City of Mexico not only the pur- 
pose of his visit but also the spirit in which it had been 
undertaken. But the proposals he submitted were rejected, 
in a note the full text of which I take the liberty of laying 
before you.^ 

I am led to believe that they were rejected partly because 
the authorities at Mexico City had been grossly misinformed 
and misled upon two points. They did not realize the spirit 
of the American people in this matter, their earnest friendli- 
ness and yet sober determination that some just solution 
be found for the Mexican difficulties ; and they did not 

1 The reply of General Huerta's Secretary for Foreign Affairs, F. 
Gamboa, dated August i6, 1913, may be found in American Journal 
of International Laze, VII, Supplement, 284. 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO 193 

believe that the present administration spoke, through Mr. 
Lind, for the people of the United States. The effect of 
this unfortunate misunderstanding on their part is to leave 
them singularly isolated and without friends who can effec- 
tually aid them. So long as the misunderstanding continues 
we can only await the time of their awakening to a realiza- 
tion of the actual facts. We can not thrust our good offices 
upon them. The situation must be given a little more time 
to work itself out in the new circumstances ; and I beheve 
that only a little while will be necessary. For the circum- 
stances are new. The rejection of our friendship makes 
them new and will inevitably bring its own alterations in the 
whole aspect of affairs. The actual situation of the authori- 
ties at Mexico City will presently be revealed. 

Meanwhile, what is it our duty to do? Clearly, every- 
thing that we do must be rooted in patience and done with 
calm and disinterested deliberation. Impatience on our 
part would be childish, and would be fraught with every risk 
of wrong and folly. We can afford to exercise the self- 
restraint of a really great nation which realizes its own 
strength and scorns to misuse it. It was our duty to offer 
our active assistance. It is now our duty to show what 
true neutrality will do to enable the people of Mexico to set 
their affairs in order again and wait for a further oppor- 
tunity to offer our friendly counsels. The door is not closed 
against the resumption, either upon the initiative of Mexico 
or upon our own, of the effort to bring order out of the 
confusion by friendly cooperative action, should fortunate 
occasion offer. 

While we wait the contest of the rival forces will un- 
doubtedly for a little while be sharper than ever, just because 
it will be plain that an end must be made of the existing 
situation, and that very promptly; and with the increased 
activity of the contending factions will come, it is to be 



194 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

feared, increased danger to the noncombatants in Mexico 
as well as to those actually in the field of battle. The posi- 
tion of outsiders is always particularly trying and full of 
hazard where there is civil strife and a whole country 
is upset. We should earnestly urge all Americans to leave 
Mexico at once, and should assist them to get away in every 
way possible — not because we would mean to slacken in 
the least our efforts to safeguard their lives and their inter- 
ests, but because it is imperative that they should take no 
unnecessary risks when it is physically possible for them to 
leave the country. We should let every one who assumes 
to exercise authority in any part of Mexico know in the 
most unequivocal way that we shall vigilantly watch the 
fortunes of those Americans who can not get away, and 
shall hold those responsible for their sufferings and losses 
to a definite reckoning. That can be and will be made plain 
beyond the possibility of a misunderstanding. 

For the rest, I deem it my duty to exercise the authority 
conferred upon me by the law of March 14, 1912, to see to 
it that neither side to the struggle now going on in Mexico 
receive any assistance from this side the border. I shall 
follow the best practice of nations in the matter of neutrality 
by forbidding the exportation of arms or munitions of war 
of any kind from the United States to any part of the Re- 
public of Mexico — a policy suggested by several interest- 
ing precedents and certainly dictated by many manifest con- 
siderations of practical expediency. We can not in the 
circumstances be the partisans of either party to the contest 
that now distracts iMexico or constitute ourselves the vir- 
tual umpire between them. 

I am happy to say that several of the great Govern- 
ments of the world have given this Government their gen- 
erous moral support in urging upon the provisional authori- 
ties at the City of Mexico the acceptance of our proffered 



THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 195 

good offices in the spirit in which they were made. We 
have not acted in this matter under the ordinary principles 
of international obligation. All the world expects us in 
such circumstances to act as Mexico's nearest friend and 
intimate adviser. This is our immemorial relation toward 
her. There is nowhere any serious question that we have 
the moral right in the case or that we are acting in the 
interest of a fair settlement and of good government, not 
for the promotion of some selfish interest of our own. If 
further motive were necessary than our own good will 
toward a sister Republic and our own deep concern to see 
peace and order prevail in Central America, this consent of 
mankind to what we are attempting, this attitude of the 
great nations of the world toward what we may attempt in 
dealing with this distressed people at our doors, should make 
us feel the more solemnly bound to go to the utmost length 
of patience and forbearance in this painful and anxious 
business. The steady pressure of moral force will before 
many days break the barriers of pride and prejudice down, 
and we shall triumph as Mexico's friends sooner than we 
could triumph as her enemies — and how much more hand- 
somely, with how much higher and finer satisfactions of con- 
science and of honor! 



GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 

9. Message of President Wilson to the Citizens of the 
Philippine Islands. October 6, ipis 

(The Weekly Times (Manila, P. I.), October 10, 1913) 

We regard ourselves as trustees acting not for the ad- 
vantage of the United States but for the benefit of the 
people of the Philippine Islands. 

Every step we take will be taken with a view to the ulti- 



'■\ 



196 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

mate independence of the Islands and as a preparation for 
that independence. And we hope to move toward that end 
as rapidly as the safety and the permanent interests of the 
Islands will permit. After each step taken experience will 
guide us to the next. 

The administration will take one step at once and will 
give to the native citizens of the Islands a majority in the 
appointive Commission and thus in the upper as well as in 
the lower house of the legislature a majority representa- 
tion will be secured to them. 

We do this in the confident hope and expectation that 
immediate proof will be given, in the action of the Commis- 
sion under the new arrangement, of the political capacity 
of those native citizens who have already come forward to 
represent and to lead their people in aliairs.^ 



NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND SELF- 
GO \'ERNM£NT 

10. Extract from an Address of President Wilson at 
Swarthmore College. October 2^, ipi^ 

(Congressional Record, L, 5862) 

. . . Sometimes we have been laughed at — by foreigners 
in particular — for boasting of the size of the American 
Continent, the size of our own domain as a nation ; for 
they have, naturally enough, suggested that we did not make 
it. But I claim that every race and every man is as big 
as the thing that he takes possession of, and that the size 
of America is in some sense a standard of the size and 

1 The address of Governor-General Harrison in presenting this 
message was published in the JVeekly Times (Manila, P. I.), Octo- 
ber 10, 1913. 



INDEPENt)'ENCK "AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 197 

capacity of the American people. And yet the mere extent 
of the American conquest is not what gives America dis- 
tinction in the annals of the world, but the professed purpose 
of the conquest which was to see to it that every foot of 
this land should be the home of free, self-governed people, 
who should have no government whatever which did not 
rest upon the consent of the governed. I would like to 
believe that all this hemisphere is devoted to the same sacred 
purpose and that nowhere can any government endure which 
is stained by blood or supported by anything but the consent 
of the governed. 

II. Extract from an Address of President Wilson at 
Congress Hall in Philadelphia. October 2^, ipij 

{Congressional Record, L, 5809) 

We have stumbled upon many unhappy circumstances in 
the hundred years that have gone by since the event that 
we are celebrating. Almost all of them have come from 
self-centered men, men who saw in their own interest the 
interest of the country, and who did not have vision enough 
to read it in wider terms, in the universal terms of equity 
and justice and the rights of mankind. . . . The Declara- 
tion of Independence was . . . the first audible breath of 
liberty, . . . The men of that generation did not hesitate to 
say that every people has a right to choose its own forms 
of government, not once but as often as it pleases, and to 
accommodate those forms of government to its existing in- 
terests and circumstances. Not only to establish but to alter 
is the fundamental principle of self-government. 

. . . Liberty inheres in the circumstances of the day. . . . 
Every day problems arise which wear some new phase and 
aspect, and I must fall back, if I would serve my conscience, 



198 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

upon those things which are fundamental rather than upon 
those things which are superficial, and ask myself this ques- 
tion, How are you going to assist in some small part to give 
the American people and, by example, the peoples of the 
world more liberty, more happiness, more substantial pros- 
perity ; and how are you going to make that prosperity a 
common heritage instead of a selfish possession? . . . 

No man can boast that he understands America. No 
man can boast that he has lived the life of America, . . . 
No man can pretend that except by common counsel he 
can gather into his consciousness what the varied life of this 
people is. The duty that we have to keep open eyes and 
open hearts and accessible understandings is a very . . . 
difficult duty to perform. . . . Yet how . . . important that 
it should be performed, for fear we make infinite and irrep- 
arable blunders. The city of Washington is in some re- 
spects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the 
rest of the United States is thinking about. . . . You are so 
apt to forget that the comparatively small number of per- 
sons, numerous as they seem to be when they swarm, who 
come to Washington to ask for things, do not constitute an 
important proportion of the population of the country, that 
it is constantly necessary to come away from Washington 
and renew one's contacts with the people who do not swarm 
there, who do not ask for anything, but who do trust you 
without their personal counsel to do your duty. Unless a 
man gets these contacts he grows weaker and weaker. . . . 
If you lifted him up too high or he lifts himself too high, 
he loses the contact and therefore loses the inspiration. 



INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 199 

12. Extract from an Address of President Wilson at 

Mobile, Alabama. October 2y, 1913 

{Congressional Record, L, 5845) 

... I want to speak of our present and prospective rela- 
tions with our neighbors to the south. I deemed it a pubUc 
duty, as well as a personal pleasure, to be here to express 
for myself and for the Government I represent the welcome 
we all feel to those who represent the Latin American States. 

The future ... is going to be very different for this 
hemisphere from the past. These States lying to the south 
of us, which have always been our neighbors, will now be 
drawn closer to us by innumerable ties, and, I hope, chief 
of all, by the tie of a common understanding of each other. 
Interest does not tie nations together ; it sometimes separates 
them. But sympathy and understanding does unite them, 
and I believe that by the new route that is just about to be 
opened, while we physically cut two continents asunder, we 
spiritually unite them. It is a spiritual union which we 
seek. 

There is one peculiarity about the history of the Latin 
American States which I am sure they are keenly aware of. 
You hear of ** concessions " to foreign capitaHsts in Latin 
America. You do not hear of concessions to foreign capi- 
talists in the United States. They are not granted conces- 
sions. They are invited to make investments. The work 
is ours, though they are welcome to invest in it. We do not 
ask them to supply the capital and do the work. It is an 
invitation, not a privilege ; and States that are obliged, be- 
cause their territory does not lie within the main field of 
modern enterprise and action, to grant concessions are in 
this condition, that foreign interests are apt to dominate 
their domestic affairs, a condition of affairs always danger- 



) 



200 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

ous and apt to become intolerable. What these States are 
going to see, therefore, is an emancipation from the sub- 
ordination, which has been inevitable, to foreign enterprise 
and an assertion of the splendid character which, in spite of 
these difficulties, they have again and again been able to 
demonstrate. The dignity, the courage, the self-possession, 
the self-respect of the Latin American States, their achieve- 
ments in the face of all these adverse circumstances, de- 
serve nothing but the admiration and applause of the world. 
They have had harder bargains driven with them in the 
matter of loans than any other peoples in the world. Inter- 
est has been exacted of them that was not exacted of any- 
body else, because the risk was said to be greater ; and then 
securities were taken that destroyed the risk — an admirable 
arrangement for those who were forcing the terms ! I re- 
joice in nothing so much as in the prospect that they will now 
be emancipated from these conditions, and we ought to be 
the first to take part in assisting in that emancipation. I 
think some of these gentlemen have already had occasion 
to bear witness that the Department of State in recent 
months has tried to serve them in that wise. In the future 
they will draw closer and closer to us because of circum- 
stances of which I wish to speak with moderation and, I 
hope, without indiscretion. 

We must prove ourselves their friends and champions 
upon terms of equality and honor. You can not be friends 
upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality. 
You can not be friends at all except upon the terms of 
honor. We must show ourselves friends by comprehend- 
ing their interest whether it squares with our own interest 
or not. It is a very perilous thing to determine the foreign 
policy of a nation in the terms of material interest. It not 
only is unfair to those with whom you are dealing, but it is 
■degrading as regards your own actions. 



INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 201 

Comprehension must be the soil in which shall grow all 
the fruits of friendship, and there is a reason and a com- 
pulsion lying behind all this which is dearer that anything 
else to the thoughtful men of America. I mean the de- 
velopment of constitutional liberty in the world. Human 
rights, national integrity, and opportunity as against ma- 
terial interests — that, ... is the issue which we now have 
to face. I want to take this occasion to say that the United 
States will never again seek one additional foot of territory 
by conquest. She will devote herself to showing that she 
knows how to make honorable and fruitful use of the terri- 
tory she has, and she must regard it as one of the duties of 
friendship to see that from no quarter are material inter- 
ests made superior to human liberty and national oppor- 
tunity. I say this, not with a single thought that any one 
will gainsay it, but merely to fix in our consciousness what 
our real relationship with the rest of America is. It is the 
relationship of a family of mankind devoted to the develop- 
ment of true constitutional liberty. We know that that is 
the soil out of which the best enterprise springs. We 
know that this is a cause which we are making in common 
with our neighbors, because we have had to make it for 
ourselves. 

Reference has been made here to-day to some of the na- 
tional problems which confront us as a Nation. What is 
at the heart of all our national problems? It is that we 
have seen the hand of material interest sometimes about to 
close upon our dearest rights and possessions. We have 
seen material interests threaten constitutional freedom in 
the United States. Therefore we will now know how to 
sympathize with those in the rest of America who have to 
contend with such powers, not only within their borders 
but from outside their borders also. 

I know what the response of the thought and heart of 



202 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

America will be to the program I have outlined, because 
America was created to realize a program like that. This 
is not America because it is rich. This is not America be- 
cause it has set up for a great population great opportunities 
of material prosperity. America is a name which sounds 
in the ears of men everywhere as a synonym with individual 
opportunity because a synonym of individual liberty. I 
would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to 
a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty. 
But we shall not be poor if we love liberty, because the na- 
tion that loves liberty truly sets every man free to do his 
best and be his best, and that means the release of all the 
splendid energies of a great people who think for them- 
selves. A nation of employees can not be free any more 
than a nation of employers can be. 

In emphasizing the points which must unite us in sym- 
pathy and in spiritual interest with the Latin American peo- 
ples we are only emphasizing the points of our own life, and 
we should prove ourselves untrue to our own traditions if we 
proved ourselves untrue friends to them. Do not think, 
therefore, . . . that the questions of the day are mere ques- 
tions of policy and diplomacy. They are shot through with 
the principles of life. We dare not turn from the principle 
that morality and not expediency is the thing that must guide 
us and that we will never condone iniquity because it is most 
convenient to do so. It seems to me that this is a day of 
infinite hope, of confidence in a future greater than the 
past has been, for I am fain to believe that in spite of all 
the things that we wish to correct the nineteenth century 
that now lies behind us has brought us a long stage toward 
the time when, slowly ascending the tedious climb that 
leads to the final uplands, we shall get our ultimate view 
of the duties of mankind. We have breasted a considerable 
part of that climb and shall presently — it may be in a gen- 



REVIEW OF FOREIGN RELATIONS 203 

eration or two — come out upon those great heights where 
there shines unobstructed the hght of the justice of God. 



REVIEW OF FOREIGN RELATIONS 

13. Extract from the Annual Message of the President. 

December 2, ipi^ 

(Congressional Record, LI, 43) 

The country, I am thankful to say, is at peace with all 
the world, and many happy manifestations multiply about 
us of a growing cordiality and sense of community of inter- 
est among the nations, foreshadowing an age of settled peace 
and good will. More and more readily each decade do the 
nations manifest their willingness to bind themselves by 
solemn treaty to the processes of peace, the processes of 
frankness and fair concession. So far the United States 
has stood at the front of such negotiations. She will, I 
earnestly hope and confidently believe, give fresh proof of 
her sincere adherence to the cause of international friend- 
ship by ratifying the several treaties of arbitration awaiting 
renewal by the Senate. In addition to these, it has been 
the privilege of the Department of State to gain the assent, 
in principle, of no less than 31 nations, representing four- 
fifths of the population of the world, to the negotiation of 
treaties by which it shall be agreed that whenever dififerences 
of interest or of policy arise which can not be resolved by 
the ordinary processes of diplomacy they shall be publicly 
analyzed, discussed, and reported upon by a tribunal chosen 
by the parties before either nation determines its course of 
action. 

There is only one possible standard by which to deter- 
mine controversies between the United States and other na- 
tions, and that is compounded of these two elements: Our 



204 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

own honor and our obligations to the peace of the world. 
A test so compounded ought easily to be made to govern 
both the establishment of new treaty obligations and the 
interpretation of those already assumed. 

There is but one cloud upon our horizon. That has 
shown itself to the south of us, and hangs over Mexico. 
There can be no certain prospect of peace in America until 
Gen. Huerta has surrendered his usurped authority in 
Mexico ; until it is understood on all hands, indeed, that 
such pretended governments will not be countenanced or 
dealt with by the Government of the United States. We 
are the friends of constitutional government in America ; 
we are more than its friends, we are its champions ; because 
in no other way can our neighbors, to whom we would 
wish in every way to make proof of our friendship, work 
out their own development in j)cace and liberty. Mexico 
has no government. The attempt to maintain one at the 
City of Mexico has broken down, and a mere military 
despotism has been set up which has hardly more than the 
semblance of national authority. It originated in the usurpa- 
tion of V^ictoriano Huerta, who, after a brief attempt to 
play the part of constitutional President, has at last cast 
aside even the pretense of legal right and declared himself 
dictator. As a consequence, a condition of affairs now 
exists in Mexico which has made it doubtful whether even 
the most elementary and fundamental rights either of her 
own people or of the citizens of other countries resident 
within her territory can long be successfully safeguarded, 
and which threatens, if long continued, to imperil the inter- 
ests of peace, order, and tolerable life in the lands im- 
mediately to the south of us. Even if the usurper had suc- 
ceeded in his purposes, in despite of the constitution of the 
Republic and the rights of its people, he would have set up 
nothing but a precarious and hateful power, which could 



REVIEW OF FOREIGN RELATIONS 205 

have lasted but a little while, and whose eventual downfall 
would have left the country in a more deplorable condition 
than ever. But he has not succeeded. He has forfeited 
the respect and the moral support even of those who were 
at one time willing to see him succeed. Little by little he 
has been completely isolated. By a little every day his 
power and prestige are crumbling and the collapse is not 
far away. We shall not, I believe, be obliged to alter our 
policy of watchful waiting. And then, when the end comes, 
we shall hope to see constitutional order restored in dis- 
tressed Mexico by the concert and energy of such of her 
leaders as prefer the liberty of their people to their own 
ambitions. 

. . outside the charmed circle of our own national 
life in which our affections command us, as well as our 
consciences, there stand out our obligations toward our 
territories oversea. Here we are trustees. Porto Rico, 
Hawaii, the Philippines, are ours, indeed, but not ours to do 
what we please with. Such territories, once regarded as 
mere possessions, are no longer to be selfishly exploited; 
they are part of the domain of public conscience and of 
serviceable and enlightened statesmanship. We must ad- 
minister them for the people who live in them and with the 
same sense of responsibility to them as toward our own 
people in our domestic affairs. No doubt we shall success- 
fully enough bind Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands to 
ourselves by ties of justice and interest and affection, but 
the performance of our duty toward the Philippines is a 
more difficult and debatable matter. We can satisfy the 
obligations of generous justice toward the people of Porto 
Rico by giving them the ample and familiar rights and priv- 
ileges accorded our own citizens in our own territories and 
our obligations toward the people of Hawaii by perfecting 



2o6 STATEMENTS OF THE ADAIINISTRATION 

the provisions for self-government already granted them, 
but in the Philippines we must go further. We must hold 
steadily in view their ultimate independence, and we must 
move toward the time of that independence as steadily as 
the way can be cleared and the foundations thoughtfully and 
permanently laid. 

Acting under the authority conferred upon the President 
by Congress, I have already accorded the people of the is- 
lands a majority in both houses of their legislative body by 
appointing five instead of four native citizens to the mem- 
bership of the commission. I believe that in this way we 
shall make proof of their capacity in counsel and their sense 
of responsibility in the exercise of political power, and that 
the success of this step will be sure to clear our view for 
the steps which are to follow. Step by step we should ex- 
tend and perfect the system of self-government in the is- 
lands, making test of them and modifying them as expe- 
rience discloses their successes and their failures ; that we 
should more and more put under the control of the native 
citizens of the archipelago the essential instruments of their 
life, their local instrumentalities of government, their 
schools, all the common interests of their communities, and 
so by counsel and experience set up a government which 
all the world will see to be suitable to a people whose affairs 
are under their own control. At last, I hope and believe, 
we are beginning to gain the confidence of the Filipino 
peoples. By their counsel and experience, rather than by 
our own, we shall learn how best to serve them and how 
soon it will be possible and wise to withdraw our super- 
vision. Let us once find the path and set out with firm and 
confident tread upon it and we shall not wander from it or 
linger upon it. 



EXPORT OF ARMS TO MEXICO 207 

EXPORTATION OF ARMS INTO MEXICO 
14. Statement of President Wilson. February 3, ipi4 

(New York Times, February 4, 1914) 
The Executive order ^ under which the exportation of 
arms and ammunition into Mexico is forbidden was a de- 
parture from the accepted practices of neutraUty — a delib- 
erate departure from those practices under a well-considered 
joint resolution of Congress, determined upon in circum- 
stances which have now ceased to exist. It was intended to 
discourage incipient revolts against the regularly constituted 
authorities of Mexico. 

Since that order was issued the circumstances of the 
case have undergone a radical change. There is now no 
Constitutional Government in Mexico ; and the existence of 
this order hinders and delays the very thing the Govern- 
ment of the United States is now insisting upon, namely, 
that Mexico shall be left free to settle her own affairs and 
as soon as possible put them on a constitutional footing by 
her own force and counsel. The order is, therefore, re- 
scinded. 



PANAMA CANAL TOLLS EXE:\IPTI0N 

15. Address of the President to the Congress. 
March 5, 1^14 

(Congressional Record, LI, 43i3) 

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, gentlemen of the Congress: 

I have come to you upon an errand which can be very 

briefly performed, but I beg that you will not measure its 

importance by the number of sentences in which I state it. 

iThe order by President Taft, dated March 14, 1912, continued 
under the Wilson administration. 



2o8 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

No communication I have addressed to the Congress car- 
ried with it graver or more far-reaching imphcations as to 
the interest of the country, and I come now to speak upon 
a matter with regard to which I am charged in a pecuhar 
degree, by the Constitution itself, with personal responsi- 
bility. 

I have come to ask you for the repeal of that provision 
of the Panama Canal Act of August 24, 191 2, which ex- 
empts vessels engaged in the coastwise trade of the United 
States from payment of tolls, and to urge upon you the 
justice, the wisdom, and the large policy of such a repeal 
with the utmost earnestness of which I am capable. 

In my own judgment, very fully considered and maturely 
formed, that exemption constitutes a mistaken economic 
policy from every point of view, and is, moreover, in plain 
contravention of the treaty with Great Britain concerning 
the canal concluded on November 18, 1901.^ But I have 
not come to urge upon you my personal views. I have 
come to state to you a fact and a situation. Whatever may 
be our own diflferences of opinion concerning this much 
debated measure, its meaning is not debated outside the 
United States. Everywhere else the language of the treaty 
is given but one interpretation, and that interpretation pre- 
cludes the exemption I am asking you to repeal. We con- 
sented to the treaty; its language we accepted, if we did not 
originate ; and we are too big, too powerful, too self-respect- 
ing a Nation to interpret with too strained or refined a 
reading the words of our own promises just because we 
have power enough to give us leave to read them as we 
please. The large thing to do is the only thing that we 
can afiford to do, a voluntary withdrawal from a position 

1 The Hay-Pauncefote treaty. For text see Treaties, Conventions, 
etc. betzveen United States and other Powers, 6ist Congress, 2d 
session, Senate Document No. 357, I, 782. 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO 209 

everywhere questioned and misunderstood. We ought to 
reverse our action without raising the question whether we 
were right or wrong, and so once more deserve our reputa- 
tion for generosity and for the redemption of every obHga- 
tion without quibble or hesitation. 

I ask this of you in support of the foreign poHcy of the 
administration. I shall not know how to deal with other 
matters of even greater delicacy and nearer consequence if 
you do not grant it to me in ungrudging measure.^ 



RELATIONS WITH ^MEXICO: TAMPICO 

16. Address of the President to the Congress. 
April 20, ipi4 

(Congressional Record, LI, 6908) 
Gentlemen of the Congress : It is my duty to call your at- 
tention to a situation which has arisen in our dealings with 
Gen. Victoriano LIuerta at Mexico City which calls for ac- 
tion, and to ask your advice and cooperation in acting upon 
it. On the 9th of April a paymaster of the U. S. S. Dolphin 
landed at the Iturbide Bridge landing at Tampico with a 
whaleboat and boat's crew to take off certain supplies needed 
by his ship, and while engaged in loading the boat was 
arrested by an officer and squad of men of the army of 
Gen. Huerta. Neither the paymaster nor any one of the 
boat's crew was armed. Two of the men were in the boat 
when the arrest took place, and were obliged to leave it 
and submit to be taken into custody, notwithstanding the 
fact that the boat carried, both at her bow and at her 
stern, the flag of the United States. The officer who made 
the arrest was proceeding up one of the streets of the town 

1 For President Wilson's own explanations of this sentence see 
The IVorld's Work, XXVIII, 490. 



210 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

with his prisoners when met by an officer of higher au- 
thority, who ordered him to return to the landing and await 
orders ; and within an hour and a half from the time of the 
arrest orders were received from the commander of the 
Huertista forces at Tampico for the release of the paymas- 
ter and his men. The release was followed by apologies 
from the commander and later by an expression of regret 
by Gen. Huerta himself. Gen. Huerta urged that martial 
law obtained at the time at Tampico ; that orders had been 
issued that no one should be allowed to land at the Iturbide 
Bridge ; and that our sailors had no right to land there. 
Our naval commanders at the port had not been notified 
of any such prohibition ; and, even if they had been, the 
only justifiable course open to the local authorities would 
have been to request the paymaster and his crew to with- 
draw and to lodge a protest with the commanding officer of 
the fleet. Admiral Mayo regarded the arrest as so serious 
an affront that he was not satisfied with the apologies offered, 
but demanded that the flag of the United States be saluted 
with special ceremony by the military commander of the 
port. 

The incident can not be regarded as a trivial one, espe- 
cially as two of the men arrested were taken from the boat 
itself — that is to say, from the territory of the United 
States — but had it stood by itself it might have been at- 
tributed to the ignorance or arrogance of a single officer. 
Unfortunately, it was not an isolated case. A series of in- 
cidents have recently occurred which can not but create the 
impression that the representatives of Gen. Huerta were 
willing to go out of their way to show disregard for the 
dignity and rights of this Government and felt perfectly 
safe in doing what they pleased, making free to show in 
many ways their irritation and contempt. A few days after 
the incident at Tampico an orderly from the U. S. S^ Min- 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO 211 

nesota was arrested at Vera Cruz while ashore in uniform to 
obtain the ship's mail and was for a time thrown into jail. 
An official dispatch from this Government to its embassy at 
Mexico City was withheld by the authorities of the tele- 
graphic service until peremptorily demanded by our charge 
d'affaires in person. So far as I can learn, such wrongs 
and annoyances have been suffered to occur only against 
representatives of the United States. I have heard of no 
complaints from other Governments of similar treatment. 
Subsequent explanations and formal apologies did not and 
could not alter the popular impression, which it is possible 
it had been the object of the Huertista authorities to create, 
that the Government of the United States was being singled 
out, and might be singled out with impunity, for slights and 
affronts in retaliation for its refusal to recognize the pre- 
tensions of Gen. Huerta to be regarded as the constitutional 
provisional President of the Republic of Mexico. 

The manifest danger of such a situation was that such 
offenses might grow from bad to worse until something 
happened of so gross and intolerable a sort as to lead di- 
rectly and inevitably to armed conflict. It was necessary 
that the apologies of Gen. Huerta and his representatives 
should go much further ; that they should be such as to at- 
tract the attention of the whole population to their signifi- 
cance and such as to impress upon Gen. Huerta himself the 
necessity of seeing to it that no further occasion for expla- 
nations and professed regrets should arise. I therefore 
felt it my duty to sustain Admiral Mayo in the whole of his 
demand and to insist that the flag of the United States 
should be saluted in such a way as to indicate a new spirit 
and attitude on the part of the Huertistas. 

Such a salute Gen. Huerta has refused, and I have come 
to ask your approval and support in the course I now pur- 
pose to pursue. 



212 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

This Government can, I earnestly hope, in no circum- 
stances be forced into war with the people of Mexico. 
Mexico is torn by civil strife. If we are to accept the tests 
of its own constitution, it has no government. Gen. Huerta 
has set his power up in the City of Mexico, such as it is, 
without right and by methods for which there can be no 
justification. Only part of the country is under his con- 
trol. If armed conflict should unhappily come as a result 
of his attitude of personal resentment toward this Govern- 
ment, we should be fighting only Gen. Huerta and those 
who adhere to him and give him their support, and our 
object would be only to restore to the people of the dis- 
tracted Republic the opportunity to set up again their own 
laws and their own Government. 

But I earnestly hope that war is not now in question. I 
believe that I speak for the American people when I say 
that we do not desire to control in any degree the affairs of 
our sister Republic. Our feeling for the people of Mexico 
is one of deep and genuine friendship, and everything that 
we have so far done or refrained from doing has proceeded 
from our desire to help them, not to hinder or embarrass 
them. We would not wish even to exercise the good offices 
of friendship without their welcome and consent. The peo- 
ple of Mexico are entitled to settle their own domestic af- 
fairs in their own way, and we sincerely desire to respect 
their right. The present situation need have none of the 
grave implications of interference if we deal with it 
promptly, firmly, and wisely. 

No doubt I could do what is necessary in the circum- 
stances to enforce respect for our Government without re- 
course to the Congress and yet not exceed my constitutional 
powers as President, but I do not wish to act in a matter 
possibly of so grave consequence except in close conference 
and cooperation with both the Senate and House. I there- 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO 213 

fore come to ask your approval that I should use the armed 
forces of the United States in such ways and to such an ex- 
tent as may be necessary to obtain from Gen. Huerta and 
his adherents the fullest recognition of the rights and dignity 
of the United States, even amidst the distressing conditions 
now unhappily obtaining in Mexico. 

There can in what we do be no thought of aggression or 
of selfish aggrandizement. We seek to maintain the dignity 
and authority of the United States only because we wish 
always to keep our great influence unimpaired for the uses 
of liberty, both in the United States and wherever else it 
may be employed for the benefit of mankind. 



RELATIONS WTTH MEXICO : A. B. C MEDIATION 
17. ConiiHunication of Secretary Bryan. April 2^, ipi4 

(American Journal of International Lazv, VIII, 583) 
The Government of the United States is deeply sensible 
of the friendliness, the good feeling, and the generous con- 
cern for the peace and welfare of America manifested in the 
joint note ^ just received from your Excellencies, tendering 
the good offices of your Governments to effect, if possible, a 
settlement of the present difficulties between the Govern- 
ment of the United States and those who now claim to repre- 
sent our sister Republic of Mexico. 

Conscious of the purpose with which the proffer is made, 
this Government does not feel at liberty to decline it. Its 
own chief interest is in the peace of America, the cordial in- 
tercourse of her republics and their people, and the hap- 
piness and prosperity which can spring only out of frank, 

1 The text of the joint note of the representatives of Argentina, 
Brazil and Chile is printed in A)nericaii Journal of International 
Lazi', VIII, 583. 



214 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

mutual understandings and the friendship which is created 
by common purpose. 

The generous offer of your Governments is therefore ac- 
cepted. This Government hopes most earnestly that you 
may find those who speak for the several elements of the 
Mexican people willing and ready to discuss terms of satis- 
factory, and therefore permanent, settlement. If you should 
find them willing, this Government will be glad to take up 
with you for discussion in the frankest and most conciliatory 
spirit any proposals that may be authoritatively formulated, 
and will hope that they may prove feasible and prophetic 
of a new day of mutual co-operation and confidence in 
America. 

This Government feels bound in candor to say that its 
diplomatic relations with Mexico being for the present sev- 
ered, it is not possible for it to make sure of an uninter- 
rupted opportunity to carry out the plan of intermediation 
which you propose. It is, of course, possible that some act 
of aggression on the part of those who control the military 
forces of Mexico might oblige the United States to act, to 
the upsetting of hopes of immediate peace; but this does 
not justify us in hesitating to accept your generous sugges- 
tion. 

We shall hope for the best results within a time brief 
enough to relieve our anxiety lest ill-considered hostile dem- 
onstrations should interrupt negotiations and disappoint 
our hopes of peace. 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 215 

THE AMERICAN SPIRIT AND A WAR OF 

SERVICE 

18. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
May II, ipi4 ^ 

(From the official printed text; for the entire address see Congres- 
sional Record, LI, 8426) 

We have gone down to iMexico to serve mankind, if we 
can find out the way. We do not want to fight the Mexi- 
cans. We want to serve the Mexicans, if we can, because 
we know how we would like to be free and how we would 
like to be served if there were friends standing by in such 
case ready to serve us. A war of aggression is not a war 
in which it is a proud thing to die, but a war of service is a 
thing in which it is a proud thing to die. 

Notice how truly these men were of our blood. I mean of 
our American blood, which is not drawn from any one coun- 
try, which is not drawn from any one stock, which is not 
drawn from any one language of the modern world ; but free 
men everywhere have sent their sons and their brothers and 
their daughters to this country in order to make that great 
compounded Nation which consists of all the sturdy ele- 
ments and of all the best elements of the whole globe. I 
listened again to this list of the dead with a profound inter- 
est because of the mixture of the names, for the names bear 
the marks of the several national stocks from which these 
men came. But they are not Irishmen or Germans or 
Frenchmen or Hebrews or Italians any more. They were 
not when they went to Vera Cruz ; they were Americans, 
every one of them, and with no difference in their American- 

1 At the memorial services at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for the 
men killed at Vera Cruz. 



2i6 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

ism because of the stock from which they came. They were 
in a pecuHar sense of our blood, and they proved it by show- 
ing that they were of our spirit, that no matter what their 
derivation, no matter where their people came from, they 
thought and wished and did the things that were American ; 
and the flag under which they served was a flag in which all 
the blood of mankind is united to make a free Nation. 



TRUE AMERICANISM VERSUS HYPHENATED 
AMERICANISM 

19. Extract from an .hldrcss of President Wilson. 

May 16, ipi4 

(Congressional Record, LI, 9^43) 

What does the United States stand for, then, that our 
hearts should be stirred by the memory of the men who set 
her Constitution up? John Barry fought, like every other 
man in the Revolution, in order that America might be 
free to make her own life without interruption or disturb- 
ance from any other quarter. You can sum the whole 
thing up in that, that America had a right to her own self- 
determined life; and what are our corollaries from that? 
You do not have to go back to stir your thoughts again 
with the issues of the Revolution. Some of the issues of 
the Revolution were not the cause of it, but merely the oc- 
casion for it. There are just as vital things stirring now that 
concern the existence of the Nation as were stirring then, 
and every man who worthily stands in this presence should 
examine himself and see whether he has the full conception 
of what it means that America should live her own life. 
Washington saw it when he wrote his farewell address. It 



TRUE AMERICANISM 217 

was not merely because of passing and transient circum- 
stances that Washington said that we must keep free from 
entanghng alhances. It was because he saw that no coun- 
try had yet set its face in the same direction in which Amer- 
ica had set her face. We can not form alHances with those 
who are not going our way; and in our might and majesty 
and in the confidence and definiteness of our own purpose 
we need not and we should not form alliances with any 
nation in the world. Those who are right, those who study 
their consciences in determining their policies, those who 
hold their honor higher than their advantage, do not need 
alliances. You need alliances when you are not strong, 
and you are weak only when you are not true to yourself. 
You are weak only when you are in the wrong; you are 
weak only when you are afraid to do the right; you are 
weak only when you doubt your cause and the majesty of 
a nation's might asserted. 

There is another corollary. John Barry was an Irish- 
man, but his heart crossed the Atlantic with him. He did 
not leave it in Ireland. And the test of all of us — for all of 
us had our origins on the other side of the sea — is whether 
we will assist in enabling America to live her separate and 
independent life, retaining our ancient affections, indeed, 
but determining everything that we do by the interests that 
exist on this side of the sea. Some Americans need hyphens 
in their names, because only part of them has come over; 
but when the whole man has come over, heart and thought 
and all, the hyphen drops of its own weight out of his 
name. This man was not an Irish-Americ;in ; he w^as an 
Irishman who became an American. I venture to say if 
he voted he voted with regard to the questions as they 
looked on this side of the water and not as they affected the 
other side; and that is my infallible test of a genuine Amer- 
ican, that when he votes or when he acts or when he fights 



2i8 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

his heart and his thought are centered nowhere but in the 
emotions and the purposes and the pohcies of the United 
States. 

This man illustrates for me all the splendid strength 
which we brought into this country by the magnet of free- 
dom. Men have been drawn to this country by the same 
thing that has made us love this country — by the oppor- 
tunity to live their own lives and to think their own 
thoughts and to let their whole natures expand with the ex- 
pansion of a free and mighty Nation. We have brought 
out of the stocks of all the world all the best impulses, and 
have appropriated them and Americanized them and trans- 
lated them into the glory and majesty of a great country. 

So, ladies and gentlemen, when we go out from this 
presence we ought to take this idea with us that we, too, 
are devoted to the purpose of enabling America to live her 
own life, to be the justest, the most progressive, the most 
honorable, the most enlightened Nation in the world. 
Any man that touches our honor is our enemy. Any man 
who stands in the way of the kind of progress which makes 
for human freedom can not call himself our friend. Any 
man who does not feel behind him the whole push and rush 
and compulsion that filled men's hearts in the time of the 
Revolution is no American. No man who thinks first of 
himself and afterwards of his country can call himself an 
American. America must be enriched by us. We must not 
live upon her; she must live by means of us. 

I, for one, come to this shrine to renew the impulses of 
American democracy. I would be ashamed of myself if I 
went away from this place without realizing again that 
every bit of self-seeking must be purged from our indi- 
vidual consciences, and that we must be great, if we would 
be great at all, in the light and illumination of the example 



IDEALS OF FOREIGN POLICY 219 

of men who gave everything that they were and everything 
that they had to the glory and honor of America. 



IDEALS AND PURPOSES OF FOREIGN POLICY 

20. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

July 4, 1914 

{Congressional Record, LI, Appendix, 707) 

In one sense the Declaration of Independence has lost its 
significance. It has lost its significance as a declaration of 
national independence. Nobody outside America believed 
when it was uttered that we could make good our inde- 
pendence ; now nobody anywhere would dare to doubt that 
we are independent and can maintain our independence. 
As a declaration of independence, therefore, it is a mere his- 
toric document. Our independence is a fact so stupendous 
that it can be measured only by the size and energy and va- 
riety and wealth and power of one of the greatest nations 
in the world. But it is one thing to be independent and it 
is another thing to know what to do with your independ- 
ence. It is one thing to come to your majority and another 
thing to know what you are going to do with your life and 
your energies; and one of the most serious questions for 
sober-minded men to address themselves to in the United 
States is this, What are we going to do with the influence 
and power of this great Nation? Are we going to play the 
old role of using that power for our aggrandizement and ma- 
terial benefit only? You know what that may mean. It 
may upon occasion mean that we shall use it to make the peo- 
ples of other nations suflfer in the way in which we said 
it was intolerable to sufifer when we uttered our Declara- 
tion of Independence. 



220 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

The Department of State at Washington is constantly 
called upon to back up the commercial enterprises and the 
industrial enterprises of the United States in foreign coun- 
tries, and it at one time went so far in that direction that all 
its diplomacy came to be designated as ** dollar diplomacy." 
It was called upon to support every man who wanted 
to earn anything anywhere if he was an American. But 
there ought to be a limit to that. There is no man who is 
more interested than I am in carrying the enterprise of 
American business men to every quarter of the globe. I 
was interested in it long before I was suspected of being 
a politician. I have been preaching it year after year as 
the great thing that lay in the future for the United States, 
to show her wit and skill and enterprise and influence in 
every country in the world. But observe the limit to all 
that which is laid upon us perhaps more than upon any 
other nation in the world. We set this Nation up — at 
any rate, we professed to set it up — to vindicate the rights 
of men. We did not name any differences between one race 
and another. We did not set up any barriers against any 
particular people. We opened our gates to all the world 
and said, " Let all men who wish to be free come to us and 
they will be welcome." We said, " This independence of 
ours is not a selfish thing for our own exclusive private use. 
It is for everybody to whom we can find the means of ex- 
tending it." We can not with that oath taken in our youth, 
we can not with that great ideal set before us when we 
were a young people and numbered only a scant three mil- 
lions, take upon ourselves, now that we are a hundred 
million strong, any other conception of duty than we then 
entertained. If American enterprise in foreign countries, 
particularly in those foreign countries which are not strong 
enough to resist us, takes the shape of imposing upon and 
exploiting the mass of the people of that country, it ought 



IDEALS OF FOREIGN POLICY 221 

to be checked and not encouraged. I am willing to get 
anything for an American that money and enterprise can 
obtain except the suppression of the rights of other men. 
I will not help any man buy a power which he ought not to 
exercise over his fellow beings. 

You know, my fellow countrymen, what a big question 
there is in Mexico. Eighty-five per cent of the Mexican 
people have never been allowed to have any genuine par- 
ticipation in their own government or to exercise any sub- 
stantial rights with regard to the very land they Hve upon. 
All the rights that men most desire have been exercised 
by the other 15 per cent. Do you suppose that that cir- 
cumstance is not sometimes in my thought? I know that 
the American people have a heart that will beat just as 
strong for those millions in Mexico as it will beat or has 
beaten for any other milhons elsewhere in the world, and 
that when once they conceive what is at stake in Mexico, 
they will know what ought to be done in Mexico. I hear a 
great deal said about the loss of property in Mexico and the 
loss of the lives of foreigners, and I deplore these things 
with all my heart. Undoubtedly upon the conclusion of 
the present disturbed conditions in Mexico those who have 
been unjustly deprived of their property or in any wise un- 
justly put upon ought to be compensated. Men's individual 
rights have no doubt been invaded, and the invasion of 
those rights has been attended by many deplorable circum- 
stances which ought sometime in the proper way to be 
accounted for. But back of it all is the struggle of a people 
to come into its own ; and while we look upon the inci- 
dents in the foreground let us not forget the great tragic 
reality in the background, wdiich towers above the whole 
picture. 

A patriotic American is a man who is not niggardly and 
selfish in the things he enjoys that make for human liberty 



222 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

and the rights of man. He wants to share them with the 
whole world, and he is never so proud of the great flag under 
which he lives as when it comes to mean to other people 
as well as to himself a symbol of hope and liberty. I would 
be ashamed of this flag if it ever did anything outside 
America that we would not permit it to do inside of 
America. 

The world is becoming more complicated every day, my 
fellow citizens. No man ought to be foolish enough to 
think that he understands it all. And therefore I am glad 
that there are some simple things in the world. One of 
the simple things is principle. Honesty is a perfectly sim- 
ple thing. It is hard for me to believe that in most circum- 
stances when a man has a choice of ways he does not know 
which is the right way and which is the wrong way. No 
man who has chosen the wrong way ought even to come into 
Independence Square ; it is holy ground which he ought not 
to tread upon. He ought not to come where immortal 
voices have uttered the great sentences of such a document 
as this Declaration of Independence upon which rests the 
liberty of a whole nation. 

And so I say that it is patriotic sometimes to prefer the 
honor of tlie country to its material interest. Would you 
rather be deemed by all the nations of the world incapable 
of keeping your treaty obligations in order that you might 
have free tolls for American ships? The treaty under 
which w^e gave up that right may have been a mistaken 
treaty, but there was no mistake about its meaning. 

When I have made a promise as a man I try to keep it, 
and I know of no other rule permissible to a nation. The 
most distinguished nation in the world is the nation that 
can and will keep its promises, even to its own hurt. And 
I want to say parenthetically that I do not think anybody 
was hurt. I can not be enthusiastic for subsidies to a 



IDEALS OF FOREIGN POLICY 223 

monopoly; but let those who are enthusiastic for subsidies 
ask themselves whether they prefer subsidies to unsullied 
honor. 

The most patriotic man is sometimes the man who goes 
in the direction that he thinks right, even when he sees half 
the world against him. It is the dictate of patriotism to 
sacrifice yourself, if you think that that is the path of honor 
and of duty. Do not blame others if they do not agree with 
you. Do not die with bitterness in your heart because you 
did not convince the rest of the world ; but die happy be- 
cause you believe that you tried to serve your country by 
not selling your soul. Those were grim days, the days of 
1776. Those gentlemen did not attach their names to the 
Declaration of Independence on this table expecting a holi- 
day on the next day, and that 4th of July was not itself a 
holiday. They attached their signatures to that significant 
document knowing that if they failed it was certain that 
every one of them would hang for the failure. They were 
committing treason in the interest of the liberty of 3,000,000 
people in America. All the rest of the world was against 
them and smiled with cynical incredulity at the audacious 
undertaking. Do you think that if they could see this great 
Nation now they would regret anything that they did to 
draw the gaze of a hostile world upon them? Every idea 
must be started by somebody, and it is a lonely thing to 
start anything. Yet if it is in you, you must start it if you 
have a man's blood in you, and if you love the country that 
you profess to be working for. 

I am sometimes very much interested when I see gentle- 
men supposing that popularity is the way to success in 
America. The way to success in this great country, with 
its fair judgments, is to show that you are not afraid of 
anybody except God and His final verdict. If I did not 
believe that, I would not believe in democracy. If I did 



224 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

not believe that, I would not believe that people can govern 
themselves. If I did not believe that the moral judgment 
would be the last judgment, the final judgment, in the minds 
of men as well as at the tribunal of God, I could not believe 
in popular government. But I do believe these things, and 
therefore I earnestly believe in the democracy not only of 
America but of every awakened people that wishes and in- 
tends to govern and control its own affairs. 

It is very inspiring, my friends, to come to this that may 
be called the original fountain of independence and liberty 
in America and here drink draughts of patriotic feeling 
which seem to renew the very blood in one's veins. Down 
in Washington sometimes when the days are hot and the 
business presses intolerably and there are so many things 
to do that it does not seem possible to do anything in the 
way it ought to be done it is always possible to lift one's 
thought above the task of the moment and, as it were, to real- 
ize that great thing of which we are all parts, the great body 
of American feeling and American principle. No man could 
do the work that has to be done in Washington if he al- 
lowed himself to be separated from that body of princi- 
ple. He must make himself feel that he is a part of the 
people of the United States ; that he is trying to think not 
only for them but with them, and then he can not feel 
lonely. He not only can not feel lonely, but he can not 
feel afraid of anything. 

My dream is that as the years go on and the world knows 
more and more of America it will also drink at these foun- 
tains of youth and renewal ; that it also will turn to Amer- 
ica for those moral inspirations which lie at the basis of all 
freedom ; that the world will never fear America unless it 
feels that it is engaged in some enterprise which is incon- 
sistent with the rights of humanity ; and that America will 
come into the full light of the day when all shall know that 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 225 

she puts human rights above all other rights, and that her 
flag is the flag not only of America, but of humanity. 

What other great people has devoted itself to this ex- 
alted ideal? To what other nation in the world can all 
eyes look for an instant sympathy that thrills the whole 
body politic when men anywhere are fighting for their 
rights? I do not know that there will ever be a declara- 
tion of independence and of grievances for mankind, but I 
believe that if any such document is ever drawn it will be 
drawn in the spirit of the American Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and that America has lifted high the light which 
will shine unto all generations and guide the feet of mankind 
to the goal of justice and liberty and peace. 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 

21. Extract from an Appeal of President Wilson to the 
American People. August 18, 191 4 ^ 

(Department of State. Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. 2, p. 17) 

The effect of the war upon the United States will depend 
upon what American citizens say and do. Every man who 
really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of 
neutrality which is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and 
friendhness to all concerned. The spirit of the Nation in 
this critical matter will be determined largely by what indi- 
viduals and society and those gathered in public meetings do 
and say, upon what newspapers and magazines contain, upon 

1 The first formal proclamation of neutrality was issued August 
4, 1914; others followed from time to time as various nations were 
drawn into the war. For typical text see Department of State, 
Diplomatic Correspondence, European War Series, No. 2, 15. 



226 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

what ministers utter in their pulpits, and men proclaim as 
their opinions on the streets. 

The people of the United States are drawn from many- 
nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war. It is 
natural and inevitable that there should be the utmost va- 
riety of sympathy and desire among them with regard to 
the issues and circumstances of the conflict. Some will wish 
one nation, others another, to succeed in the momentous 
struggle. It will be easy to excite passion and difficult to 
allay it. Those responsible for exciting it will assume a 
heavy responsibility, responsibility for no less a thing than 
that the people of the United States, whose love of their 
country and whose loyalty to its Government should unite 
them as Americans all, bound in honor and affection to 
think first of her and her interests, may be divided in camps 
of hostile opinion, hot against each other, involved in the 
war itself in impulse and opinion, if not in action. 

Such divisions among us would be fatal to our peace of 
mind and might seriously stand in the way of the proper per- 
formance of our duty as the one great nation at peace, the 
one people holding itself ready to play a part of impartial 
mediation and speak the counsels of peace and accommoda- 
tion, not as a partisan, but as a friend. 

I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a 
solemn word of warning to you against that deepest, most 
subtle, most essential breach of neutrality which may spring 
out of partisanship, out of passionately taking sides. The 
United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name 
during these days that are to try men's souls. We must 
be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a 
curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction 
that might be construed as a preference of one party to the 
struggle before another. 

My thought is of America. I am speaking, I feel sure, 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 227 

the earnest wish and purpose of every thoughtful American 
that this great country of ours, which is, of course, the 
first in our thoughts and in our hearts, should show herself 
in this time of peculiar trial a Nation fit beyond others to 
exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity 
of self-control, the efficiency of dispassionate action; a 
Nation that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is 
disturbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit 
and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly 
serviceable for the peace of the world. . . . 

22. Extract from a Communication of President Wilson 
to the German Emperor. September 16, 191 4 •"■ 

{American Journal of International Lan', VIII, 857) 

You will, I am sure, not expect me to say more. Pres- 
ently, I pray God very soon, this war will be over. The 
day of accounting will then come when I take it for granted 
the nations of Europe will assemble to determine a settlement. 
Where wrongs have been committed their consequences and 
the relative responsibility involved will be assessed. 

The nations of the world have fortunately by agree- 
ment made a plan for such a reckoning and settlement. 
What such a plan cannot compass the opinion of mankind, 
the final arbiter in such matters, will supply. It would be 
unwise, it would be premature, for a single Government, 
however fortunately separated from the present struggle, 
it would even be inconsistent with the neutral position of 
any nation which like this has no part in the contest, to form 
or express a final judgment. 

I speak thus frankly because I know that you will expect 
and wish me to do so as one friend speaks to another, and 

^ A similar communication was made to a Belgian Delegation. 



228 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

because I feel sure that such a reservation of judgment until 
the end of the war, when all its events and circumstances 
can be seen in their entirety and in their true relations, will 
commend itself to you as a true expression of sincere neu- 
trality. 



BASIS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 

23. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October 20, 1(^14 

(From the official printed text; for the entire address see Congres- 
sional Record, LI, 16812) 

Mr. President, Gentlemen of the American Bar Associa- 
tion : I am very deeply gratified by the greeting that your 
president has given me and by your response to it. My 
only strength lies in your contidence. 

We stand now in a peculiar case. Our first thought, I 
suppose, as lawyers, is of international law, of those bonds 
of right and principle which draw the nations together and 
hold the community of the world to some standards of ac- 
tion. We know that we see in international law, as it were, 
the moral processes by which law itself came into existence. 
I know that as a lawyer I have myself at times felt that there 
was no real comparison between the law of a nation and the 
law of nations, because the latter lacked the sanction that 
gave the former strength and validity. And yet, if you look 
into the matter more closely, you will find that the two 
have the same foundations, and that those foundations are 
more evident and conspicuous in our day than they have 
ever been before. 

The opinion of the world is the mistress of the world ; 
and the processes of international law are the slow processes 
by which opinion works its will. What impresses me is the 



BASIS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 229 

constant thought that that is the tribunal at the bar of which 
we all sit. I would call your attention, incidentally, to the 
circumstance that it does not observe the ordinary rules of 
evidence; which has sometimes suggested to me that the 
ordinary rules of evidence had shown some signs of grow- 
ing antique. Everything, rumor included, is heard in this 
court, and the standard of judgment is not so much the char- 
acter of the testimony as the character of the witness. 
The motives are disclosed, the purposes are conjectured, and 
that opinion is finally accepted which seems to be, not the 
best founded in law perhaps, but the best founded in in- 
tegrity of character and of morals. That is the process 
which is slowly working its will upon the world, and what 
we should be watchful of is not so much jealous interests 
as sound principles of action. The disinterested course is 
always the biggest course to pursue not only, but it is in the 
long run the most profitable course to pursue. If you can 
establish your character, you can establish your credit. 

... in this time of world change, in this time when we 
are going to find out just how, in what particulars, and to 
what extent the real facts of human life and the real moral 
judgments of mankind prevail, it is worth while looking in- 
side our municipal law and seeing whether the judgments of 
the law are made square with the moral judgments of man- 
kind. For I believe that we are custodians, not of com- 
mands but of a spirit. We are custodians of the spirit of 
righteousness, of the spirit of equal-handed justice, of the 
spirit of hope which believes in the perfectibility of the law 
with the perfectibility of human life itself. 

Public life, like private life, would be very dull and 
dry if it were not for this belief in the essential beauty of 
the human spirit and the belief that the human spirit 
could be translated into action and into ordinance. Not 



230 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

entire. You can not go any faster than you can advance 
the average moral judgments of the mass, but you can go 
at least as fast as that, and you can see to it that you do 
not lag behind the average moral judgments of the mass. 
I have in my life dealt with all sorts and conditions of men, 
and I have found that the flame of moral judgment burned 
just as bright in the man of humble life and limited expe- 
rience as in the scholar and the man of affairs. And I 
would like his voice always to be heard, not as a witness, 
not as speaking in his own case, but as if he were the voice 
of men in general, in our courts of justice, as well as the 
voice of the lawyers, remembering what the law has been. 
My hope is that, being stirred to the depths by the extraor- 
dinary circumstances of the time in which we live, we may 
recover from those depths something of a renewal of that 
vision of the law with which men may be supposed to have 
started out in the old days of the oracles, who communed 
with the intimations of divinity. 



FOREIGN TRADE AND NATIONAL DEFENSE 

24. Extract from Message of the President. 
December S, 1^14 

{Congressional Record, LII, 18) 

Aloreover,^ our thoughts are now more of the future than 
of the past. While we have worked at our tasks of peace 
the circumstances of the whole age have been altered by 
war. What we have done for our own land and our own 
people we did with the best that was in us, whether of 
character or of intelligence, with sober enthusiasm and with 

1 A review of the events of the year 1914 preceded the Presi- 
dent's discussion of foreign affairs. 



FOREIGN TRADE AND NATIONAL DEFENSE 231 

a confidence in the principles upon which we were acting 
which sustained us at every step of the difficuh undertak- 
ing; but it is done. It has passed from our hands. It is 
now an estabhshed part of the legislation of the country. 
Its usefulness, its effects, will disclose themselves in experi- 
ence. What chiefly strikes us now, as we look about us dur- 
ing these closing days of a year which will be forever mem- 
orable in the history of the world, is that we face new 
tasks, have been facing them these six months, must face 
them in the months to come — face them without partisan 
feeling, like men who have forgotten everything but a com- 
mon duty and the fact that we are representatives of a 
great people whose thought is not of us but of what Amer- 
ica owes to herself and to all mankind in such circum^ 
stances as these upon which we look amazed and anxious. 

War has interrupted the means of trade not only but also 
the processes of production. In Europe it is destroying 
men and resources wholesale and upon a scale unprece- 
dented and appalling. There is reason to fear that the 
time is near, if it be not already at hand, when several of 
the countries of Europe will find it difficult to do for their 
people what they have hitherto been always easily able to 
do — many essential and fundamental things. At any rate, 
they will need our help and our manifold services as they 
have never needed them before ; and we should be ready, 
more fit and ready than we have ever been. 

It is of equal consequence that the nations whom Europe 
has usually supplied with innumerable articles of manufac- 
ture and commerce, of which they are in constant need and 
without which their economic development halts and stands 
still, can now get only a small part of what they formerly 
imported, and eagerly look to us to supply their all but 
empty markets. This is particularly true of our own neigh- 
bors, the States, great and small, of Central and South 



232 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

America. Their lines of trade have hitherto run chiefly 
athwart the seas, not to our ports but to the ports of Great 
Britain and of the older Continent of Europe. I do not 
stop to inquire why or to make any comment on probable 
causes. What interests us just now is not the explanation 
but the fact, and our duty and opportunity in the presence 
of it. Here are markets which we must supply, and we 
must find the means of action. The United States, this 
great people for whom we speak and act, should be ready 
as never before to serve itself and to serve mankind ; ready 
with its resources, its energies, its forces of production, 
and its means of distribution. 

And there is another great piece of legislation which 
awaits and should receive the sanction of the Senate ^ — I 
mean the bill which gives a larger measure of self-govern- 
ment to the people of the Philippines. How better, in this 
time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy, could we 
show our confidence in the principles of liberty, as the 
source as well as the expression of life, how better could 
we demonstrate our own self-possession and steadfastness 
in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than by thus 
going calmly forward to fulfill our promises to a dependent 
people, who will look more anxiously than ever to see 
whether we have indeed the liberality, the unselfishness, the 
courage, the faith we have boasted and professed. I can not 
believe that the Senate will let this great measure of con- 
structive justice await the action of another Congress. Its 
passage would nobly crown the record of these two years 
of memorable labor. 



1 The Philippine bill had passed the House of Representatives, 
October 14, 1914. 



FOREIGN TRADE AND NATIONAL DEFENSE 233 

The other topic I shall take leave to mention goes deeper 
into the principles of our national life and policy. It is the 
subject of national defense. 

It can not be discussed without first answering some very 
searching questions. It is said in some quarters that we are 
not prepared for war. What is meant by being prepared? 
Is it meant that we are not ready upon brief notice to put 
a nation in the field, a nation of men trained to arms? Of 
course we are not ready to do that ; and we never shall be 
in time of peace so long as we retain our present political 
principles and institutions. And what is it that it is sug- 
gested we should be prepared to do? To defend ourselves 
against attack? We have always found means to do that, 
and shall find them whenever it is necessary without calling 
our people away from their necessary tasks to render com- 
pulsory military service in time of peace. 

Allow me to speak with great plainness and directness 
upon this great matter and to avow my convictions with 
deep earnestness. I have tried to know what America is, 
what her people think, what they are, what they most cher- 
ish and hold dear. I hope that some of their finer passions 
are in my own heart — some of the great conceptions and 
desires which gave birth to this Government and which have 
made the voice of this people a voice of peace and hope and 
liberty among the peoples of the world; and that speaking 
my own thoughts, I shall, at least in part, speak theirs also, 
however faintly and inadequately, upon this vital matter. 

W^e are at peace with all the world. No one who speaks 
counsel based on fact or drawn from a just and candid in- 
terpretation of realities can say that there is any reason to 
fear that from any quarter our independence or the integrity 
of our territory is threatened. Dread of the power of any 
other nation we are incapable of. We are not jealous of 
rivalry in the fields of commerce or of any other peaceful 



234 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

achievement. We mean to live our own lives as we will; 
but we mean also to let live. We are, indeed, a true friend 
to all the nations of the world, because we threaten none, 
' covet the possessions of none, desire the overthrow of none. 
Our friendship can be accepted and is accepted without res- 
ervation, because it is offered in a spirit and for a purpose 
which no one need ever question or suspect. Therein lies 
our greatness. We are champions of peace and of concord. 
And we should be very jealous of this distinction which we 
have sought to earn. Just now we should be particularly 
jealous of it, because it is our dearest present hope that this 
character and reputation may presently, in God's providence, 
bring us an opportunity such as has seldom been vouchsafed 
any nation, the opportunity to counsel and obtain peace in 
the world and reconciliation and a healing settlement of 
many a matter that has cooled and interrupted the friendship 
of nations. This is the time above all others when we should 
wish and resolve to keep our strength by self-possession, our 
influence by preserving our ancient principles of action. 

From the first we have had a clear and settled policy with 
regard to military establishments. We never have had, and 
while we retain our present principles and ideals we never 
shall have, a large standing army. If asked, Are you ready 
to defend yourselves? We reply. Most assuredly, to the 
utmost. And yet we shall not turn America into a military 
camp. We will not ask our young men to spend the best 
years of their lives making soldiers of themselves. There 
is another sort of energy in us. It will know how to declare 
itself and make itself effective should occasion arise. And 
especially when half the world is on fire we shall be careful 
to make our moral insurance against the spread of the con- 
flagration very definite and certain and adequate indeed. 

Let us remind ourselves, therefore, of the only thing we 
can do or will do. We must depend in every time of na- 



FOREIGN TRADE AND NATIONAL DEFENSE 235 

tional peril, in the future as in the past, not upon a standing 
army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but upon a citizenry 
trained and accustomed to arms. It will be right enough, 
right American policy, based upon our accustomed principles 
and practices, to provide a system by which every citizen 
who will volunteer for the training may be made familiar 
with the use of modern arms, the rudiments of drill and 
maneuver, and the maintenance and sanitation of camps. 
We should encourage such training and make it a means of 
discipline which our young men will learn to value. It is 
right that we should provide it not only, but that we should 
make it as attractive as possible, and so induce our young 
men to undergo it at such times as they can command a 
little freedom and can seek the physical development they 
need, for mere health's sake, if for nothing else. Every 
means by which such things can be stimulated is legitimate, 
and such a method smacks of true American ideas. It is 
right, too, that the National Guard of the States should be 
developed and strengtliened by every means which is not 
inconsistent with our obligations to our own people or with 
the established policy of our Government. And this, also, 
not because the time or occasion specially calls for such 
measures, but because it should be our constant policy to 
make these provisions for our national peace and safety. 

More than this carries with it a reversal of the whole his- 
tory and character of our polity. ^lore than this, proposed 
at this time, permit me to say, would mean merely that we 
had lost our self-possession, that we had been thrown off 
our balance by a war with which we have nothing to do, 
whose causes can not touch us, whose very existence affords 
us opportunities of friendship and disinterested service 
which should make us ashamed of any thought of hostility 
or fearful preparation for trouble. This is assuredly the 
opportunity for which a people and a government like ours 



236 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

were raised up, the opportunity not only to speak but actu- 
ally to embody and exemplify the counsels of peace and 
amity and lasting concord which is based on justice. and fair 
and generous dealing. 



BRITISH RESTRAINTS ON COMMERCE 

25. Extract from a Communication of Secretary 
Bryan. December 26, 191 4 ^ 

(Department of State, Pif'loniatic Corrcsl^ondence, European War 

Scries, No. i, p. 39) 

The present condition of American foreign trade result- 
ing from the frequent seizures and detentions of American 
cargoes destined to neutral European ports has become so 
serious as to require a candid statement of the views of 
this Government in order that the British Government may 
be fully informed as to the attitude of the United States 
toward the policy which has been pursued by the British 
authorities during the present war. 

You will, therefore, communicate the following to His 
Majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign afifairs, 
but in doing so you will assure him that it is done in the 
most friendly spirit and in the belief that frankness will 
better serve the continuance of cordial relations between llic 
two countries than silence, which may be misconstrued into 
acquiescence in a course of conduct which this Government 
can not but consider to be an infringement upon the rights 
of American citizens. 

It is needless to point out to His Majesty's Government, 
usually the champion of the freedom of the seas and the 
rights of trade, that peace, not war, is the normal relation 

^An earlier protest had been made October 21, 1914. 



BRITISH RESTRAINTS ON COMMERCE 237 

between nations and that the commerce between countries 
which are not belHgerents should not be interfered with by 
those at war unless such interference is manifestly an im- 
perative necessity to protect their national safety, and then 
only to the extent that it is a necessity. It is with no lack 
of appreciation of the momentous nature of the present 
struggle in which Great Britain is engaged and with no 
selfish desire to gain undue commercial advantage that this 
Government is reluctantly forced to the conclusion that the 
present policy of His Majesty's Government toward neutral 
ships and cargoes exceeds the manifest necessity of a bel- 
ligerent and constitutes restrictions upon the rights of Amer- 
ican citizens on the high seas which are not justified by the 
rules of international law or required under the principle of 
self-preservation. 

Not only is the situation a critical one to the commercial 
interests of the United States, but many of the great indus- 
tries of this country are suffering because their products are 
denied long-established markets in European countries, 
which, though neutral, are contiguous to the nations at war. 
Producers and exporters, steamship and insurance com- 
panies are pressing, and not without reason, for relief from 
the menace of trans-Atlantic trade which is gradually but 
surely destroying their business and threatening them with 
financial disaster. 

The Government of the United States, still relying upon 
the deep sense of justice of the British Nation, which has 
been so often manifested in the intercourse between the two 
countries during so many years of uninterrupted friendship, 
expresses confidently the hope that his Majesty's Govern- 
ment will realize the obstacles and difficulties which their 
present policy has placed in the way of commerce between 
the United States and the neutral countries of Europe, and 



238 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

will instruct its officials to refrain from all unnecessary in- 
terference with the freedom of trade between nations which 
are sufferers, though not participants, in the present con- 
flict; and will in their treatment of neutral ships and car- 
goes conform more closely to those rules governing the 
maritime relations between belligerents and neutrals, which 
have received the sanction of the civilized world, and which 
Great Britain has, in other wars, so strongly and success- 
fully advocated. 

In conclusion, it should be impressed upon His Majesty's 
Government that the present condition of American trade 
with the neutral European countries is such that, if it does 
not improve, it may arouse a feeling contrary to that which 
has so long existed between the American and British peo- 
ples. Already is is becoming more and more the subject of 
public criticism and complaint. There is an increasing be- 
lief, doubtless not entirely unjustified, that the present Brit- 
ish policy toward American trade is responsible for the 
depression in certain industries which depend upon European 
markets. The attention of the British Government is called 
to this possible result of their present policy to show how 
widespread the effect is upon the industrial life of the United 
States and to emphasize the importance of removing the 
cause of complaint.^ 

1 The reply of Great Britain, dated January 7, 191S, is published 
in Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 
Series, No. i, p. 41. 



SELF-GOVERNMENT IN MEXICO 239 

SELF-GOVERNMENT IN MEXICO 

26. Extract from Address of President Wilson. 
January 8, 1915 

{Congressional Record, LII, 1279) 

Now, there is one thing I have got a great enthusiasm 
about — I might almost say a reckless enthusiasm — and 
that is human liberty. The governor has just now spoken 
about watchful waiting in Mexico. I want to say a word 
about Mexico, or not so much about Mexico as about our 
attitude toward Mexico. I hold it as a fundamental prin- 
ciple, and so do you, that every people has the right to de- 
termine its own form of government; and until this recent 
revolution in Mexico, until the end of the Diaz reign, 80 
per cent of the people of Mexico never had a " look-in " in 
determining who should be their governor or what their 
Government should be. Now, I am for the 80 per cent. 
It is none of my business, and it is none of your business, 
how long they take in determining it. It is none of my 
business and it is none of yours how they go about the busi- 
ness. The country is theirs. The Government is theirs. 
The liberty, if they can get it, and Godspeed them in getting 
it, is theirs. And so far as my influence goes while I am 
President nobody shall interfere with them. 

That is what I mean by a great emotion, the great emo- 
tion of sympathy. Do you suppose that the American peo- 
ple are ever going to count a small amount of material 
benefit and advantage to people doing business in Mexico 
against the liberties and the permanent happiness of the 
Mexican people? Have not European nations taken as 
long as they wanted and spilt as much blood as they pleased 
in settling their affairs, and shall we deny that to Mexico 



240 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

because she is weak ? No, I say ! I am proud to belong 
to a strong nation that says : '* This country, which we 
could crush, shall have just as much freedom in her own 
affairs as we have. If I am strong, I am ashamed to bully 
the weak. In proportion to my strength is my pride in 
withholding that strength from the oppression of another 
people." And I know when I speak of these things — not 
merely from the generous response with which they have 
just met from you, but from my long-time knowledge of 
the American people — that that is the sentiment of the 
American people. 



DEFENSE OF THE NEUTRALITY OF THE 
UNITED STATES 

27. Extract from a Letter of Secretary Bryan. 
January 20, ipi3 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. 2, p. 58) 

If any American citizens, partisans of Germany and Aus- 
tria-Hungary, feel that this administration is acting in a 
way injurious to the cause of those countries, this feeling 
results from the fact that on the high seas the German and 
Austro-Hungarian naval power is thus far inferior to the 
British. It is the business of a belligerent operating on the 
high seas, not the duty of a neutral, to prevent contraband 
from reaching an enemy. Those in this country who sym- 
pathize with Germany and Austria-Hungary appear to as- 
sume that some obligation rests upon this Government in 
the performance of its neutral duty to prevent all trade in 
contraband, and thus to equalize the difference due to tlie 
relative naval strength of the belligerents. No such obliga- 



IMMIGRATION 241 

tion exists; it would be an unneutral act, an act of par- 
tiality on the part of this Government to adopt such a policy 
if the Executive had the power to do so. If Germany and 
Austria-Hungary can not import contraband from this coun- 
try, it is not, because of that fact, the duty of the United 
States to close its markets to the allies. The markets of 
this country are open upon equal terms to all the world, to 
every nation, belligerent or neutral. 

The foregoing categorical replies to specific complaints 
is sufficient answer to the charge of unfriendliness to Ger- 
many and Austria-Hungary. 



IMMIGRATION 

28. Extract from a Message of the President. 
January 28, ipij 

(Congressional Record, LII, 2481) 

In two particulars of vital consequence this bill ^ embodies 
a radical departure from the traditional and long-estab- 
lished policy of this country, a policy in which our people 
have conceived the very character of their Government to 
be expressed, the very mission and spirit of the Nation in 
respect of its relations to the peoples of the world outside 
their borders. It seeks to all but close entirely the gates of 
asylum which have always been open to those who could find 
nowhere else the right and opportunity of constitutional agi- 
tation for what they conceived to be the natural and inalien- 
able rights of men ; and it excludes those to whom the oppor- 
tunities of elementary education have been denied, without 

1 The bill referred to is the immigration bill passed by the Sixty- 
Third Congress in the middle of January, 1915. President Wilson 
vetoed a similar bill in January, 1917, but it was later passed over 
his veto. 



242 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

regard to their character, their purpose, or their natural 
capacity. 

Restrictions like these adopted earlier in our history as a 
nation, would very materially have altered the course and 
cooled the humane ardors of our politics. The right of 
political asylum has brought to this country many a man of 
noble character and elevated purpose who was marked as an 
outlaw in his own less fortunate land, and who has yet be- 
come an ornament to our citizenship and to our public coun- 
cils. The children and the compatriots of these illustrious 
Americans must stand amazed to see the representatives of 
their Nation now resolved, in the fullness of our national 
strength and at the maturity of our great institutions, to risk 
turning such men back from our shores without test of qual- 
ity or purpose. It is difficult for mc to believe that the full 
effect of this feature of the bill was realized when it was 
framed and adopted, and it is impossible for me to assent to 
it in the form in which it is here cast. 

The literacy test and the tests and restrictions which ac- 
company it constitute an even more radical change in the 
policy of the Nation. Hitherto we have generously kept our 
doors open to all who were not unfitted by reason of disease 
or incapacity for self-support or such personal records and 
antecedents as were likely to make them a menace to our 
peace and order or to the wholesome and essential relation- 
ships of life. In this bill it is proposed to turn away from 
tests of character and of quality and to impose tests which 
exclude and restrict ; for the new tests here embodied are 
not tests of quality or of character or of personal fitness, but 
tests of opportunity. Those who come seeking opportunity 
are not to be admitted unless they have already had one of 
the chief of the opportunities they seek, the opportunity 
of education. The object of such provision is restriction, not 
selection. 



GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE 243 

If the people of this country have made up their minds to 
limit the number of immigrants by arbitrary tests and so re- 
verse the policy of all the generations of Americans that 
have gone before them, it is their right to do so. I am their 
servant, and have no license to stand in their way. But I 
do not believe that they have. I respectfully submit that 
no one can quote their mandate to that effect. Has any po- 
litical party ever avowed a policy of restriction in this fun- 
damental matter, gone to the country on it, and been com- 
missioned to control its legislation? Does this bill rest upon 
the conscious and universal assent and desire of the Amer- 
ican people ? I doubt it. It is because I doubt it that I 
make bold to dissent from it. I am willing to abide by the 
verdict, but not until it has been rendered. Let the plat- 
forms of parties speak out upon this policy and the people 
pronounce their wish. The matter is too fundamental to 
be settled otherwise. 

I have no pride of opinion in this question. I am not 
foolish enough to profess to know the wishes and ideals of 
America better than the body of her chosen representatives 
know them. I only want instruction direct from those whose 
fortunes, with ours and all men's, are involved. 



GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE 

29. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Bryan. 
February 10, ipij ^ 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Scries, No. i, p. 54) 

It is of course not necessary to remind the German Gov- 
ernment that the sole right of a belligerent in dealing with 

1 The German decree of February 6, 1915, establishing a war 
zone around the British Isles, is published in Department of State, 
Diplomatic Correspondence, European war Series, No. i, p. 52. 



244 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

neutral vessels on the high seas is limited to visit and search, 
unless a blockade is proclaimed and effectively maintained, 
which this Government does not understand to be proposed 
in this case. To declare or exercise a right to attack and 
destroy any vessel entering a prescribed area of the high 
seas without first certainly determining its belligerent nation- 
ality and the contraband character of its cargo would be an 
act so unprecedented in naval warfare that this Government 
is reluctant to believe that the Imperial Government of Ger- 
many in this case contemplates it as possible. The suspicion 
that enemy ships are using neutral flags improperly can 
create no just presumption that all ships traversing a pre- 
scribed area are subject to the same suspicion. It is to 
determine exactly such questions that this Government un- 
derstands the right of visit and search to have been recog- 
nized. 

This Government has carefully noted the explanatory 
statement issued by the Imperial German Government at the 
same time with the proclamation of the German Admiralty, 
and takes this occasion to remind the Imperial German 
Government very respectfully that the Government of the 
United States is open to none of the criticisms for unneutral 
action to which the German Government believe the govern- 
ments of certain of other neutral nations have laid them- 
selves open ; that the Government of the United States has 
not consented to or acquiesced in any measures which may 
have been taken by the other belligerent nations in the pres- 
ent war which operate to restrain neutral trade, but has, 
on the contrary, taken in all such matters a position which 
warrants it in holding those governments responsible in the 
proper way for any untoward effects upon American ship- 
ping which the accepted principles of international law do 
not justify; and that it, therefore, regards itself as free in 
the present instance to take with a clear conscience and 



RESTRAINTS ON COMMERCE 245 

upon accepted principles the position indicated in this note. 

If the commanders of German vessels of war should act 
upon the presumption that the flag of the United States was 
not being used in good faith and should destroy on the 
high seas an American vessel or the lives of American citi- 
zens, it would be difficult for the Government of the United 
States to view the act in any other light than as an inde- 
fensible violation of neutral rights which it would be very 
hard indeed to reconcile with the friendly relations now so 
happily subsisting between the two Governments. 

If such a deplorable situation should arise, the Imperial 
German Government can readily appreciate that the Govern- 
ment of the United States would be constrained to hold the 
Imperial German Government to a strict accountability for 
such acts of their naval authorities and to take any steps 
it might be necessary to take to safeguard American lives 
and property and to secure to American citizens the full 
enjoyment of their acknowledged rights on the high seas. 



SUBMARINE WARFARE AND RESTRAINTS ON 

COMMERCE 

30. Extract from a Co)}wiiinication of Secretary Bryan. 

February 20, ipi^ 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. I, p. 59) 

Germany and Great Britain to agree : 

I. That neither will sow any floating mines, whether upon 
the high seas or in territorial waters ; that neither will plant 
on the high seas anchored mines except within cannon range 
of harbors for defensive purposes only; and that all mines 



246 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 



II 



shall bear the stamp of the Government planting them and 
be so constructed as to become harmless if separated from 
their moorings. 

2. That neither will use submarines to attack merchant 
vessels of any nationality except to enforce the right of visit 
and search. 

3. That each will require their respective merchant vessels 
not to use neutral flags for the purpose of disguise or ruse 
de guerre. 

Germany to agree : 

That all importations of food or foodstuffs from the 
United States (and from such other neutral countries as 
may ask it) into Germany shall be consigned to agencies 
to be designated by the United States Government ; that 
these American agencies shall have entire charge and control 
without interference on the part of the German Govern- 
ment, of the receipt and distribution of such importations, 
and shall distribute them solely to retail dealers bearing 
licenses from the Gennan Government entitling them to 
receive and furnish such food and foodstuffs to noncom- 
batants only ; that any violation of the terms of the retail- 
ers' licenses shall work a forfeiture of their rights to receive 
such food and foodstuffs for this purpose ; and that such 
food and foodstuff's will not be requisitioned by the German 
Government for any purpose whatsoever or be diverted to 
the use of the armed forces of Germany. 

Great Britain to agree : 

That food and foodstuffs will not be placed upon the abso- 
lute contraband list and that shipments of such commodities 
will not be interfered with or detained by British authorities 
if consigned to agencies designated by the United States 
Government in Germany for the receipt and distribution of 
such cargoes to licensed German retailers for distribution 
solely to the noncombatant population. 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 247 

In submitting this proposed basis of agreement this Gov- 
ernment does not wish to be understood as admitting or 
denying any belHgerent or neutral right estabhshed by the 
principles of international law, but would consider the agree- 
ment, if acceptable to the interested powers, a modus vivendi 
based upon expediency rather than legal right and as not 
binding upon the United States either in its present form or 
in a modified form until accepted by this Government. 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 

31. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

April 8, ipij 

{New York Times, April 9, 1915) 

. . . These are days of great perplexity, when a great 
cloud of trouble hangs and broods over the greater part of 
the world. It seems as if great, blind material forces had 
been released which had for long been held in leash and 
restraint. And yet, underneath that you can see the strong 
impulses of great ideals. 

It would be impossible for men to go through what men 
are going through on the battlefields of Europe — to go 
through the present dark night of their terrible struggle — if 
it were not that they saw, or thought that they saw, the 
broadening of light where the morning sun should come up, 
and believed that they were standing, each on his side of the 
contest, for some eternal principle for right. 

Then, all about them, all about us, there sits the silent, 
waiting tribunal which is going to utter the ultimate judg- 
ment upon this struggle, the great tribunal of the opinion 
of the world, and I fancy I see, I hope that I see, I pray 
that it may be that I do truly see great spiritual forces lying 



248 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

waiting for the outcome of this thing to assert themselves, 
and asserting themselves even now to enlighten our judg- 
ment and steady our spirits. No man is wise enough to 
pronounce judgment, but we can all hold our spirits in 
readiness to accept the truth when it dawns on us and is 
revealed to us in the outcome of this titanic struggle. 

You will see that it is only in such general terms that one 
can speak in the midst of a confused world, because, as I 
have already said, no man has the key to this confusion. 
No man can see the outcome, but every man can keep his 
own spirit prepared to contribute to the net result when 
the outcome displays itself. 



32. Extract from an Address of President IVilson. 
April ip, ipij 

(New York Times, April 20, 1915) 

In a peculiar degree the United States seems to be reborn 
from generation to generation, because renewed out of all I 
the sources of human energies in the world. There is here 
a great melting pot in which we must compound a precious 
metal. That metal is the metal of nationality, and if you 
will not think I am merely playing upon words, I would like 
to spell the word " metal " in two ways, for it is just the 
mettle of this nation that we are now most interested in. 

There are many tests by which a nation makes proof of 
its greatness, but it seems to me the supreme test is self- 
possession, the power to resist excitement, to think calmly, 
to think in moments of difficulty as clearly as it would think 
in moments of ease — to be absolutely master of itself and 
of its fortunes. 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 249 

Such ideals cannot be maintained with steadiness of view 
amidst contest and excitement, and what I am constantly 
hoping is that every great influence — such as you ladies 
exercise, for example — will be exercised to produce the 
sober second thought upon every critical matter that 
arises. 

I cannot speak, ladies, as you know, in more than general 
terms. Indeed, it is indiscreet for me to speak at all, but 
I can ask you to rally to the cause which is dearer in my 
estimation than any other cause, and that is the cause of 
righteousness as ministered to by those who hold their minds 
quiet and judge according to principle. 



35. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
April 20, ipij 

(From the official printed text; for the entire address see Current 
History, New York Tunes, II, 438) 

I am deeply gratified by the generous reception you have 
accorded me. It makes me look back with a touch of regret 
to former occasions when I have stood in this place and 
enjoyed a greater liberty than is granted me today. There 
have been times when I stood in this spot and said what I 
really thought, and I cannot help praying that those days of 
indulgence may be accorded me again. I have come here 
today, of course, somewhat restrained by a sense of respon- 
sibility which I cannot escape. For I take The Associated 
Press very seriously. I know the enormous part that you 
play in the affairs not only of this country but the world. 
You deal in the raw material of opinion and, if my convic- 
tions have any validity, opinion ultimately governs the world. 

It is, therefore, of very serious things that I think as I 



250 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

face this body of men. I do not think of you, however, as 
members of The Associated Press. I do not think of you 
as men of different parties or of different racial derivations 
or of different rehgious denominations. I want to talk to 
you as to my fellow citizens of the United States. For 
there are serious things which as fellow citizens we ought 
to consider. The times behind us, gentlemen, have been 
difficult enough ; the times before us are likely to be more 
difficult still, because, whatever may be said about the pres- 
ent condition of the world's affairs, it is clear that they are 
drawing rapidly to a climax, and at the climax the test will 
come, not only for the nations engaged in the present colos- 
sal struggle — it will come for them of course — but the test 
will come to us particularly. 

Do you realize that, roughly speaking, we are the only 
great Nation at present disengaged? I am not speaking, of 
course, with disparagement of the greatness of those nations 
in Europe which are not parties to the present war, but I 
am thinking of their close neighborhood to it. I am think- 
ing how their lives much more than ours touch the very 
heart and stuff" of the business, whereas we have rolhng 
between us and those bitter days across the water three 
thousand miles of cool and silent ocean. Our atmosphere is 
not yet charged with those disturbing elements which must 
permeate every nation of Europe. Therefore, is it not likely 
that the nations of the world will some day turn to us for 
the cooler assessment of the elements engaged? I am not 
now thinking so preposterous a thought as that we should 
sit in judgment upon them — no nation is fit to sit in judg- 
ment upon any other nation — but that we shall some day 
have to assist in reconstructing the processes of peace. 
Our resources are untouched ; we are more and more be- 
coming by the force of circumstances the mediating Nation 
of the world in respect to its finance. We must make up 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 251 

our minds what are the best things to do and what are the 
best ways to do them. We must put our money, our energy, 
our enthusiasm, our sympathy into these things, and we 
must have our judgments prepared and our spirits chastened 
against the coming of that day. 

So that I am not speaking in a selfish spirit when I say 
that our whole duty, for the present, at any rate, is summed 
up in this motto, '' America first." Let us think of America 
before we think of Europe, in order that America may be 
fit to be Europe's friend when the day of tested friendship 
comes. The test of friendship is not now sympathy with 
the one side or the other, but getting ready to help both 
sides when the struggle is over. The basis of neutrality, 
gentlemen, is not indifference; it is not self-interest. The 
basis of neutrality is sympathy for mankind. It is fairness, 
it is good will, at bottom. It is impartiality of spirit and of 
judgment. I wish that all of our fellow citizens could real- 
ize that. There is in some quarters a disposition to create 
distempers in this body politic. Men are even uttering 
slanders against the United States, as if to excite her. Men 
are saying that if we should go to war upon either side there 
will be a divided America — an abominable libel of igno- 
rance ! America is not all of it vocal just now. It is vocal 
in spots, but I, for one, have a complete and abiding faith in 
that great silent body of Americans who are not standing up 
and shouting and expressing their opinions just now, but 
are waiting to find out and support the duty of America. I 
am just as sure of their solidity and of their loyalty and of 
their unanimity, if we act justly, as I am that the history 
of this country has at every crisis and turning point illus- 
trated this great lesson. 

We are the mediating Nation of the world. I do not 
mean that we undertake not to mind our own business and 
to mediate where other people are quarreling. I mean the 



252 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

word in a broader sense. We are compounded of the na- 
tions of the world. We mediate their blood, we mediate 
their traditions, we mediate their sentiments, their tastes, 
their passions ; we are ourselves compounded of those things. 
We are, therefore, able to understand all nations; we are 
able to understand them in the compound, not separately, as 
partisans, but unitedly as knowing and comprehending and 
embodying them all. It is in that sense that I mean that 
America is a mediating Nation. The opinion of America, 
the action of America, is ready to turn, and free to turn, 
in any direction. Did you ever reflect upon how almost 
every other nation has through long centuries been 
almost every other nation, has through long centuries been 
headed in one direction? That is not true of the United 
States. The United States has no racial momentum. It 
has no history back of it which makes it run all its energies 
and all its ambitions in one particular direction. And Amer- 
ica is particularly free in this, that she has no hampering am- 
bitions as a world power. We do not want a foot of any- 
body's territory. If we have been obliged by circumstances, 
or have considered ourselves to be obliged by circumstances, 
in the past, to take territory which we otherwise would not 
have thought of taking, I believe I am right in saying that we 
have considered it our duty to administer that territory, not 
for ourselves but for the people living in it, and to put this 
burden upon our consciences — not to think that this thing is 
ours for our use, but to regard ourselves as trustees of the 
great business for those to whom it does really belong, trus- 
tees ready to hand it over to the cestui que trust at any time 
when the business seems to make that possible and feasible. 
That is w^hat I mean by saying w^e have no hampering ambi- 
tions. We do not want anything that does not belong to us. 
Is not a nation in that position free to serve other nations, 



J 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 253 

and is not a nation like that ready to form some part of the 
assessing opinion of the world? 

My interest in the neutrality of the United States is not 
the petty desire to keep out of trouble. . . . But I am inter- 
ested in neutrality because there is something so much 
greater to do than fight ; there is something, there is a 
distinction waiting for this Nation that no nation has ever 
yet got. That is the distinction of absolute self-control and 
self-mastery. . . . Now, I covet for America this splendid 
courage of reserve moral force. . . . 

. . . The world ought to know the truth, but the world 
ought not at this period of unstable equilibrium to be dis- 
turbed by rumor, ought not to be disturbed by imaginative 
combinations of circumstances, or, rather, by circumstances 
stated in combination which do not belong in combination. 
You gentlemen, and gentlemen engaged like you, are holding 
the balances in your hand. This unstable equilibrium rests 
upon the scales that are in your hands. For the food of 
opinion, as I began by saying, is the news of the day. 
I have known many a man to go ofif at a tangent on 
information that was not reliable. Indeed, that describes 
the majority of men. The world is held stable by the man 
who waits for the next day to find out whether the report 
was true or not. 

We can not aflford, therefore, to let the rumors of irre- 
sponsible persons and origins get into the atmosphere of 
the United States. We are trustees for what I venture to 
say is the greatest heritage that any nation ever had, the 
love of justice and righteousness and human liberty. For, 
fundamentally, those are the things to which America is 
addicted and to which she is devoted. There are groups of 
selfish men in the United States, there are coteries, where 
sinister things are purposed, but the great heart of the 



254 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

American people is just as sound and true as it ever was. 
And it is a single heart; it is the heart of America. It is 
not a heart made up of sections selected out of other 
countries. 

What I try to remind myself of every day when I am 
almost overcome by perplexities, what I try to remem- 
ber, is what the people at home are thinking about. I try 
to put myself in the place of the man who does not know 
all the things that I know and ask myself what he would like 
the policy of this country to be. Not the talkative man, not 
the partisan man, not the man who remembers first that he 
is a Republican or Democrat, or that his parents were Ger- 
man or English, but the man who remembers first that the 
whole destiny of modern affairs centers largely upon his 
being an American first of all. If I permitted myself to be 
a partisan in this present struggle I would be unworthy to 
represent you. If I permitted myself to forget the people 
who are not partisans, I would be unworthy to be your 
spokesman. I am not sure that I am worthy to represent 
you, but I do claim this degree of worthiness — that before 
everything else I love America. 

34. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Bryan 
to the German Ambassador. April 21, igi^ ^ 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. i, p. 74) dj 

In the first place, this Government has at no time and in no 
manner yielded any one of its rights as a neutral to any of 
the present belligerents. It has acknowledged, as a matter 
of course, the right of visit and search and the right to 

1 In reply to the German note dated April 4. IQT5; see Depart- 
ment of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War Series, 
No. I, p. 73. 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 255 

apply the rules of contraband of war to articles of com- 
merce. It has, indeed, insisted upon the use of visit and 
search as an absolutely necessary safeguard against mistak- 
ing neutral vessels for vessels owned by an enemy and 
against mistaking legal cargoes for illegal. It has admitted 
also the right of blockade if actually exercised and effectively 
maintained. These are merely the well-known limitations 
which war places upon neutral commerce on the high seas. 
But nothing beyond these has it conceded. I call Your 
Excellency's attention to this, notwithstanding it is already 
known to all the world as a consequence of the publication 
of our correspondence in regard to these matters with sev- 
eral of the belligerent nations, because I can not assume 
that you have official cognizance of it. 

In the second place, this Government attempted to se- 
cure from the German and British Governments mutual 
concessions with regard to the measures those Governments 
respectively adopted for the interruption of trade on the 
high seas.^ This it did, not of right, but merely as exer- 
cising the privileges of a sincere friend of both parties and 
as indicating its impartial good will. The attempt was 
unsuccessful; but I regret that Your Excellency did not 
deem it worthy of mention in modification of the impres- 
sions you expressed. We had hoped that this act on our 
part had shown our spirit in these times of distressing war 
as our diplomatic correspondence had shown our steadfast 
refusal to acknowledge the right of any belligerent to alter 
the accepted rules of war at sea in so far as they affect 
the rights and interests of neutrals. 

In the third place, I note with sincere regret that, in dis- 
cussing the sale and exportation of arms by citizens of the 
United States to the enemies of Germany, Your Excellency 

1 See the proposal dated February 20, 191 5, infra, statement No. 
30. P- 245. 



256 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION I 

seems to be under the impression that it was within the 
choice of the Government of the United States, notwith- 
standing its professed neutrahty and its dihgent eliforts to 
maintain it in other particulars, to inhibit this trade, and 
that its failure to do so manifested an unfair attitude 
toward Germany. This Government holds, as I believe 
Your Excellency is aware, and as it is constrained to hold 
in view of the present indisputable doctrines of accepted 
international law, that any change in its own laws of neu- 
trality during the progress of a war which would afifect 
unequally the relations of the United States with the nations 
at war would be an unjustifiable departure from the prin- 
ciple of strict neutrality by which it has consistently sought 
to direct its actions, and I respectfully submit that none 
of the circumstances urged in Your Excellency's memoran- 
dum alters the principle involved. The placing of an em- 
bargo on the trade in arms at the present time would consti- 
tute such a change and be a direct violation of the neutrality 
of the United States. It will, I feel assured, be clear to 
Your Excellency that, holding this view and considering 
itself in honor bound by it, it is out of the question for 
this Government to consider such a course. 



THE MEANING OF AMERICANISM ^ 

35. Address of President IVilson. May 10, ipi^ 
(From the official printed text) 

It warms my heart that you should give me such a 
reception; but it is not of myself that I wish to think 
tonight, but of those who have just become citizens of the 
United States. 

^ Generally known as the " Too Proud to Fight " speech. 



THE MEANING OF AMERICANISM 257 

This is the only country in the world which experiences this 
constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon 
the multiplication of their own native people. This country 
is constantly drinking strength out of new sources by the 
voluntary association with it of great bodies of strong 
men and forward-looking women out of other lands. 
And so by the gift of the free will of independent people 
it is being constantly renewed from generation to genera- 
tion by the same process by which it was originally 
created. It is as if humanity had determined to see to it 
that this great Nation, founded for the benefit of humanity, 
should not lack for the allegiance of the people of the world. 

You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United 
States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, 
unless it be God — certainly not of allegiance to those who 
temporarily represent this great Government. You have 
taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body 
of principles, to a great hope of the human race. You have 
said, ** We are going to America, not only to earn a living, 
not only to seek the things which it was more difficult to 
obtain where we were born, but to help forward the great 
enterprises of the human spirit — to let men know that 
everywhere in the world there are men who will cross 
strange oceans and go where a speech is spoken which is 
alien to them, if they can but satisfy their quest for what 
their spirits crave ; knowing that whatever the speech there is 
but one longing and utterance of the human heart, and 
that is for liberty and justice.'' And while you bring all 
countries with you, you come with a purpose of leaving all 
other countries behind you — bringing what is best of their 
spirit, but not looking over your shoulders and seeking 
to perpetuate what you intended to leave behind in them. 
I certainly would not be one even to suggest that a man 
cease to love the home of his birth and the nation of his 



258 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION ! 

origin — these things are very sacred and ought not to 
be put out of our hearts — but it is one thing to love 
the place where you were born and it is another thing 
to dedicate yourself to the place to which you go. You 
cannot dedicate yourself to America unless you become 
in every respect and with every purpose of your will 
thorough Americans. You cannot become thorough Ameri- 
cans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does 
not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as 
belonging to a particular national group in America has 
not yet become an American, and the man who goes among 
you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy son to 
live under the Stars and Stripes. 

My urgent advice to you would be, not only always to 
think first of America, but always, also, to think first of 
humanity. You do not love humanity if you seek to divide 
humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can be welded 
together only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by 
jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks 
to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellow- 
men. He has lost the touch and ideal of America, for 
America was created to unite mankind by those passions 
which lift and not by the passions which separate and 
debase. We came to America, either ourselves or in the 
persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to 
make them see finer things than they had seen before, to 
get rid of the things that divide and to make sure of the 
things that unite. It was but a historical accident no doubt 
that this great country was called the '' United States ; " and 
yet I am very thankful that it has the word " united " in its 
title, and the man who seeks to divide man from man, group 
from group, interest from interest in this great Union is 
striking at its very heart. 

It is a very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking 



THE MEANING OF AMERICANISM 259 

of those of you who have just sworn allegiance to this 
great Government, that you were drawn across the ocean 
by some beckoning finger of hope, by some belief, by some 
vision of a new kind of justice, by some expectation of a 
better kind of life. Xo doubt you have been disappointed in 
some of us. Some of us are very disappointing. No doubt 
you have found that justice in the United States goes only 
with a pure heart and a right purpose, as it does everywhere 
else in the world. No doubt what you found here did not 
seem touched for you, after all, with the complete beauty 
of the ideal which you had conceived beforehand. But 
remember this: If we had grown at all poor in the 
ideal, you brought some of it with you. A man does not go 
out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not 
hope for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some 
of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any 
rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief. 
That is the reason that I, for one, make you welcome. 
If I have in any degree forgotten what America was 
intended for, I will thank God if you will remind me. 
I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of what 
America was to be, and I hope you brought the dreams 
with you. No man that does not see visions will ever 
realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise. 
Just because you brought dreams with you, America is 
more likely to realize the dreams such as you brought. 
You are enriching us if you came expecting us to be better 
than we are. 

See, my friends, what that means. It means that Amer- 
icans must have a consciousness different from the con- 
sciousness of every other nation in the world. I am not 
saying this with even the slightest thought of criticism of 
other nations. You know how it is with a family. A 
family gets centered on itself if it is not careful and is less 



26o STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

interested in the neighbors than it is in its own members. 
So a nation that is not constantly renewed out of new 
sources is apt to have the narrowness and prejudice of a 
family ; whereas, America must have this consciousness, 
that on all sides it touches elbows and touches hearts with 
all the nations of mankind. The example of America must 
be a special example. The example of America must be 
the example not merely of peace because it will not 
fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating 
influence of the world and strife is not. There is such 
a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a 
thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to 
convince others by force that it is right. 

You have come into this great Nation voluntarily seeking 
something that we have to give, and all that we have to 
give is this: We cannot exempt you from work. No 
man is exempt from work anywhere in the world. We can- 
not exempt you from the strife and the heart-breaking 
burden of the struggle of the day — that is common to 
mankind everywhere ; we cannot exempt you from the 
loads that you must carry. We can only make them 
light by the spirit in which they are carried. That is the 
spirit of hope, it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit of 
justice. 

When I was asked, therefore, by the Mayor and the 
committee that accompanied him to come up from Washing- 
ton to meet this great company of newly admitted citizens, I 
could not decline the invitation. I ought not to be away 
from Washington, and yet I feel that it has renewed my 
spirit as an American to be here. In Washington men 
tell you so many things every day that are not so, and 
I like to come and stand in the presence of a great body 
of my fellow-citizens, whether they have been my fellow- 
citizens a long time or a short time, and drink, as it were, 



GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE 261 

out of the common fountains with them and go back feeling 
what you have so generously given me the sense of your 
support and of the living vitality in your hearts of its great 
ideals which made America the hope of the world. 



GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE: FIRST LUSI- 

TANIA NOTE 

36. Communication of Secretary Bryan to Ambassador 
Gerard. May 13, 191 5 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. i, p. 7S) 

In vievv of recent acts of the German authorities in viola- 
tion of American rights on the high seas which culminated 
in the torpedoing and sinking of the British steamship 
Lusitania on May 7, 191 5, by which over 100 American citi- 
zens lost their lives, it is clearly wise and desirable that the 
Government of the United States and the Imperial German 
Government should come to a clear and full understanding 
as to the grave situation which has resulted. 

The sinking of the British passenger steamer Falaba by 
a German submarine on March 28, through which Leon C. 
Thrasher, an American citizen, was drowned; the attack 
on April 28 on the American vessel Cushing by a German 
aeroplane ; the torpedoing on May i of the American vessel 
Gidflight by a German submarine, as a result of which two 
or more American citizens met their death ; and, finally, the 
torpedoing and sinking of the steamship Lusitania, consti- 
tutes a series of events which the Government of the United 
States has observed with growing concern, distress, and 
amazement. 

Recalling the humane and enlightened attitude hitherto 
assumed by the Imperial German Government in matters 



262 STATExMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

of international right, and particularly with regard to the 
freedom of the seas ; having learned to recognize the Ger- 
man views and the German influence in the field of inter- 
national obligation as always engaged upon the side of jus- 
tice and humanity ; and having understood the instructions 
of the Imperial German Government to its naval com- 
manders to be upon the same plane of humane action pre- 
scribed by the naval codes of other nations, the Government 
of the United States was loath to believe — it can not now 
bring itself to believe — that these acts, so absolutely con- 
trary to the rules, the practices, and the spirit of modern 
warfare, could have the countenance or sanction of that 
great Government. It feels it to be its duty, therefore, to 
address the Imperial German Government concerning them 
with the utmost frankness and in the earnest hope that it is 
not mistaken in expecting action on the part of the Imperial 
German Government which will correct the unfortunate 
impressions which have been created and vindicate once 
more the position of that Government with regard to the 
sacred freedom of the seas. 

The Government of the United States has been apprised 
that the Imperial German Government considered them- 
selves to be obliged by the extraordinary circumstances of 
the present war and the measures adopted by their adver- 
saries in seeking to cut Germany off from all commerce, 
to adopt methods of retaliation which go much beyond the 
ordinary methods of warfare at sea, in the proclamation of 
a war zone from which they have warned neutral ships to 
keep away. This Government has already taken occasion 
to inform the Imperial German Government that it can not 
admit the adoption of such measures or such a warning of 
danger to operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the 
rights of American shipmasters or of American citizens 
bound on lawful errands as passengers on merchant ships 



GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE 263 

of belligerent nationality ; and that it must hold the Imperial 
German Government to a strict accountability for any in- 
fringement of those rights, intentional or incidental. It 
does not understand the Imperial German Government to 
question those rights. It assumes, on the contrary, that the 
Imperial Government accept, as of course, the rule that 
the lives of noncombatants, whether they be of neutral citi- 
zenship or citizens of one of the nations at war, can not 
lawfully or rightfully be put in jeopardy by the capture or 
destruction of an unarmed merchantman, and recognize also, 
as all other nations do, the obligation to take the usual pre- 
caution of visit and search to ascertain whether a suspected 
merchantman is in fact of belligerent nationality or is in 
fact carrying contraband of war under a neutral flag. 

The Government of the United States, therefore, desires 
to call the attention of the Imperial German Government 
with the utmost earnestness to the fact that the objection 
to their present method of attack against the trade of their 
enemies lies in the practical impossibility of employing sub- 
marines in the destruction of commerce without disregard- 
ing those rules of fairness, reason, justice, and humanity, 
which all modern opinion regards as imperative. It is prac- 
tically impossible for the officers of a submarine to visit a 
merchantman at sea and examine her papers and cargo. It 
is practically impossible for them to make a prize of her; 
and, if they can not put a prize crew on board of her, they 
can not sink her without leaving her crew and all on board 
of her to the mercy of the sea in her small boats. These 
facts it is understood the Imperial German Government 
frankly admit. We are informed that in the instances of 
which we have spoken time enough for even that poor meas- 
ure of safety was not given, and in at least two of the cases 
cited not so much a$ a warning was received. Manifestly 
submarines can not be used against merchantmen, as the last 



264 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

few weeks have shown, without an inevitable violation of 
many sacred principles of justice and humanity. 

American citizens act within their indisputable rights in 
taking their ships and in traveling wherever their legitimate 
business calls them upon the high seas, and exercise those 
rights in what should be the well- justified confidence thatl 
their lives will not be endangered by acts done in clear viola- i 
tion of universally acknowledged international obligations,! 
and certainly in the confidence that their own Government' 
will sustain them in the exercise of their rights. 

There was recently published in the newspapers of the 
United States, I regret to inform the Imperial German 
Government, a formal warning, purporting to come from 
the Imperial German Embassy at Washington, addressed to 
the people of the United States, and stating, in effect, that 
any citizen of the United States who exercised his right 
of free travel upon the seas would do so at his peril if his 
journey should take him within the zone of waters within 
which the Imperial German Navy was using submarines 
against the commerce of Great Britain and France, notwith- 
standing the respectful but very earnest protest of his Gov- 
ernment, the Government of the United States. I do not 
refer to this for the purpose of calling the attention of the 
Imperial German Government at this time to the surprising 
irregularity of a communication from the Imperial German 
Embassy at Washington addressed to the people of the 
United States through the newspapers, but only for the pur- 
pose of pointing out that no warning that an unlawful and 
inhumane act will be committed can possibly be accepted as 
an excuse or palliation for that act or as an abatement of the 
responsibility for its commission. 

Long acquainted as this Government has been with the 
character of the Imperial German Government and with the 
high principles of equity by. wliich they have in the. past 



GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE 265 

been actuated and guided, the Government of the United 
States can not beheve that the commanders of the vessels 
which committed these acts of lawlessness did so except 
under a misapprehension of the orders issued by the Im- 
perial German naval authorities. It takes it for granted 
that, at least within the practical possibiHties of every such 
case, the commanders even of submarines were expected to 
do nothing that would involve the lives of noncombatants or 
the safety of neutral ships, even at the cost of failing of their 
object of capture or destruction. It confidently expects, 
therefore, that the Imperial German Government will dis- 
avow the acts of which the Government of the United States 
complains, that they will make reparation so far as repara- 
tion is possible for injuries which are without measure, and 
that they will take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence 
of anything so obviously subversive of the principles of 
warfare for which the Imperial German Government have in 
the past so wisely and so firmly contended. 

The Government and the people of the United States look 
to the Imperial German Government for just, prompt, and 
enlightened action in this vital matter with the greater confi- 
dence because the United States and Germany are bound 
together not only by special ties of friendship but also by 
the explicit stipulations of the treaty of 1828 between the 
United States and the Kingdom of Prussia. 

Expressions of regret and offers of reparation in case of 
the destruction of neutral ships sunk by mistake, while they 
may satisfy international obligations, if no loss of life re- 
sults, can not justify or excuse a practice the natural and 
necessary efifect of which is to subject neutral nations and 
neutral persons to new and immeasurable risks. 

The Imperial German Government will not expect the 
Government of the United States to omit any word or any 
act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of main- 



266 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

taining the rights of the United States and its citizens and 
of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment. 



IDEALS OF SERVICE FOR THE NAVY , 

37. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
May ij, ipis 

(From the official printed text ; for the entire address see Current 
History, New York Times, II, 443) 

This is not an occasion upon which, it seems to me, that 
it would be wise for me to make many remarks, but I 
would deprive myself of a great gratification if I did not 
express my pleasure in being here, my gratitude for the 
splendid reception which has been accorded me as the repre- 
sentative of the nation, and my profound interest in the Navy 
of the United States. . . . 

I think it is a natural, instinctive judgment of the people 
of the United States that they express their power most ap- 
propriately in an efficient navy, and their interest in their 
ships is partly, I believe, because that Navy is expected to 
express their character, not within our own borders where 
that character is understood, but outside our borders where it 
is hoped we may occasionally touch others with some slight 
vision of what America stands for. 

I like to image in my thought this idea : These quiet 
ships lying in the river have no suggestion of bluster about 
them, no intimation of aggression. They are commanded 
by men thoughtful of the duty of citizens as well as the duty 
of officers, men acquainted with the traditions of the great 
service to which they belong, men who know by touch with 
the people of the United States what sort of purposes they 
ought to entertain and what sort of discretion they ought 



IDEALS OF SERVICE FOR THE NAVY 267 

to exercise in order to use those engines of force as engines 
to promote the interests of humanity. 

The interesting and inspiring thing about America, gen- 
tlemen, is that she asks nothing for herself except what she 
has a right to ask for humanity itself. We want no nation's 
property. We mean to question no nation's honor. We 
do not wish to stand selfishly in the way of the development 
of any nation. W^e want nothing that we cannot get by our 
own legitimate enterprise and by the inspiration of our own 
example ; and, standing for these things, it is not pretension 
on our part to say that we are privileged to stand for what 
every nation would wish to stand for, and speak for those 
things which all humanity must desire. 

When I think of the flag which those ships carry, the only 
touch of color about them, the only thing that moves as if 
it had a subtle spirit in it in their solid structure, it seems 
to me I see alternate strips of parchment upon which are 
written the rights of liberty and justice, and stripes of blood 
spilt to vindicate those rights ; and, then, in the corner a pre- 
diction of the blue serene into which every nation may swim 
which stands for these things. 

The mission of America is the only thing that a sailor 
or soldier should think about. He has nothing to do with 
the formulation of her policy. He is to support her policy 
whatever it is ; but he is to support her policy in the spirit 
of herself, and the strength of our policy is that we who for 
the time being administer the affairs of this Nation do not 
originate her spirit. We attempt to embody it; we attempt 
to realize it in action ; we are dominated by it, we do not 
dictate it. 

So with every man in arms who serves the Nation ; he 
stands and waits to do the thing which the Nation desires. 
Those who represent America seem sometimes to forget her 
programs, but the people never forget them. It is as star- 



268 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

tling as it is touching to see how whenever you touch a 
principle you touch the hearts of the people of the United 
States. They listen to your debates of policy, they deter- 
mine which party they will prefer to power, they choose and 
prefer as between men, but their real afifection, their real 
force, their real irresistible momentum, is for the ideas 
which men embody. . . . When a crisis occurs in this coun- 
try, gentlemen, it is as if you put your hand on the pulse of 
a dynamo, it is as if the things which you were in connection 
with were spiritually bred, as if you had nothing to do with 
them except, if you listen truly, to speak the things that you 
hear. 

These things now brood over the river ; this spirit now 
moves with the men who represent the Nation in the Navy ; 
these things will move upon the waters in the manoeuvres — 
no threat lifted against any man, against any nation, against 
any interest, but just a great solemn evidence that the force 
of America is the force of moral principle, that there is 
nothing else that she loves and that there is nothing else for 
which she will contend. 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO 
38. Statement of President IVilson. June 2, ipi^ 

{New York Times, June 3, 1915) 

For more than two years revolutionary conditions have 
existed in Mexico. The purpose of the revolution was to 
rid Mexico of men who ignored the Constitution of the re- 
public and used their power in contempt of the right of its 
people, and with these purposes the people of the United 
States instinctively and generously sympathized. But the 
leaders of the revolution, in the very hour of their success, 
have disagreed and turned their arms against one another. 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO 269 

All professing the same objects, they are, nevertheless, 
unable or unwilling to co-operate. A central authority at 
Mexico City is no sooner set up than it is undermined and 
its authority denied by those who were expected to support 
it. 

Mexico is apparently no nearer a solution of her tragical 
troubles than she was when the revolution was first kindled. 
And she has been swept by civil war as if by fire. Her 
crops are destroyed, her fields lie unseeded, her w-ork cattle 
are confiscated for the use of the armed factions, her people 
flee to the mountains to escape being drawn into unavailing 
bloodshed, and no man seems to see or lead the way to peace 
and settled order. There is no proper protection, either for 
her own citizens or for the citizens of other nations resident 
and at work within her territory. Mexico is starving and 
without a Government. 

In these circumstances the people and Government of the 
United States cannot stand indifferently by and do nothing 
to serve their neighbor. They want nothing for them- 
selves in Mexico. Least of all do they desire to settle her 
affairs for her, or claim any right to do so. But neither do 
they wish to see utter ruin come upon her, and they deem 
it theii duty as friends and neighbors to lend any aid they 
properly can to any instrumentality w^iich promises to be 
effective in bringing about a settlement which will embody 
the real objects of the revolution — constitutional govern- 
ment and the rights of the people. 

Patriotic Mexicans are sick at heart and cry out for peace 
and for every self-sacrifice that may be necessary to procure 
it. Their people cry out for food and will presently hate 
as much as they fear every man in their country or out of 
it who stands between them and their daily bread. 

It is time, therefore, that the Government of the United 
States should frankly state the policy which, in these extraor- 



270 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

dinary circumstances, it becomes its duty to adopt. It must 
presently do what it has not hitherto done or felt at liberty 
to do, lend its active moral support to some man or group 
of men, if such may be found, who can rally the suffering 
people of ]\Iexico to their support in an effort to ignore, if 
they cannot unite, the warring factions of the country, re- 
turn to the Constitution of the republic so long in abeyance, 
and set up a Government at Mexico City which the great 
powers of the world can recognize and deal with — a Gov- 
ernment with whom the program of the revolution will be 
a business and not merely a platform. 

I, therefore, publicly and very solemnly, call upon the 
leaders of factions in ^lexico to act, to act together, and 
to act promptly for the relief and redemption of their 
prostrate country. 

I feel it to be my duty to tell them that, if they cannot 
accommodate their differences and unite for this great pur- 
pose within a very short time, this Government will be 
constrained to decide what means should be employed by 
the United States in order to help ^Mexico save herself and 
serve her people. 



GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE: SECOND 
LUSITANIA NOTE 

39. Extract from a Communication of Acting Secretary 
Lansing to Ambassador Gerard. June p, 1915^ 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. 2, 171) 

The Government of the United States notes with gratifica- 

1 In reply to the German notes of May 28 and June i. 1915. See 
Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 
Series, No. 2, pp. 169, 170. 



SECOND LUSITANIA NOTE 271 

tion the full recognition by the Imperial German Govern'- 
ment, in discussing the case of the Cushing and the GulHight, 
of the principle of the freedom of all parts of the open sea 
to neutral ships and the frank willingness of the Imperial 
German Government to acknowledge and meet its liability 
where the fact of attack upon neutral ships " which have 
not been guilty of any hostile act " by German aircraft or 
vessels of war is satisfactorily established ; and the Govern- 
ment of the United States will in due course lay before the 
Imperial German Government, as it requests, full informa- 
tion concerning the attack on the steamer Cushing. 

With regard to the sinking of the steamer Falaha, by 
which an American citizen lost his life, the Government of 
the United States is surprised to find the Imperial German 
Government contending that an effort on the part of a mer- 
chantman to escape capture and secure assistance alters the 
obligation of the officer seeking to make the capture in re- 
spect of the safety of the lives of those on board the mer- 
chantman, although the vessel had ceased her attempt to 
escape when torpedoed. These are not new circumstances. 
They have been in the minds of statesmen and of inter- 
national jurists throughout the development of naval war- 
fare, and the Government of the United States does not 
understand that they have ever been held to alter the prin- 
ciples of humanity upon which it has insisted. Nothing but 
actual forcible resistance or continued efforts to escape by 
flight when ordered to stop for the purpose of visit on the 
part of the merchantman has ever been held to forfeit the 
lives of her passengers or crew. The Government of the 
United States, however, does not understand that the Im- 
perial German Government is seeking in this case to relieve 
itself of liability, but only intends to set forth the circum- 
stances which led the commander of the submarine to allow 
himself to be hurried into the course which he took. 



272 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

Your Excellency's note, in discussing the loss of American 
lives resulting from the sinking of the steamship Liisitania, 
adverts at some length to certain information which the 
Imperial German Government has received with regard to 
the character and outfit of that vessel, and Your Excellency 
expresses the fear that this information may not have been 
brought to the attention of the Government of the United 
States. It is stated in the note that the Lusitania was un- 
doubtedly equipped with masked guns, supplied with trained 
gunners and special ammunition, transporting troops from 
Canada, carrying a cargo not permitted under the laws of 
the United States to a vessel also carrying passengers, and 
serving, in virtual effect, as an auxiliary to the naval forces 
of Great Britain. Fortunately, these are matters concerning 
which the Government of the United States is in a position 
to give the Imperial German Government official informa- 
tion. Of the facts alleged in Your Excellency's note, if true, 
the Government of the United States would have been 
bound to take official cognizance in performing its recognized 
duty as a neutral power and in enforcing its national laws. 
It was its duty to see to it that the Lusitania was not armed 
for offensive action, that she was not serving as a transport, 
that she did not carry a cargo prohibited by the statutes of 
the United States, and that, if in fact she was a naval vessel 
of Great Britain, she should not receive clearance as a mer- 
chantman ; and it performed that duty and enforced its 
statutes with scrupulous vigilance through its regularly con- 
stituted officials. It is able, therefore, to assure the Im- 
perial German Government that it has been misinformed. 
If the Imperial German Government should deem itself to 
be in possession of convincing evidence that the officials of 
the Government of the United States did not perform these 
duties with thoroughness the Government of the United 



SECOND LUSITANIA NOTE 273 

States sincerely hopes that it will submit that evidence for 
consideration. 

Whatever may be the contentions of the Imperial German 
Government regarding the carriage of contraband of war on 
board the Lusitania or regarding the explosion of that ma- 
terial by the torpedo, it need only be said that in view of this 
Government these contentions are irrelevant to the question 
of the legality of the methods used by the German naval 
authorities in sinking the vessel. 

But the sinking of passenger ships involves principles of 
humanity which throw into the background any special cir- 
cumstances of detail that may be thought to affect the cases, 
principles which lift it, as the Imperial German Govern- 
ment will no doubt be quick to recognize and acknowledge, 
out of the class of ordinary subjects of diplomatic discus- 
sion or of international controversy. Whatever be the other 
facts regarding the Lusitania, the principal fact is that a 
great steamer, primarily and chiefly a conveyance for passen- 
gers, and carrying more than a thousand souls who had 
no part or lot in the conduct of the war, was torpedoed and 
sunk without so much as a challenge or a warning, and that 
men, women, and children were sent to their death in cir- 
cumstances unparalleled in modern warfare. The fact that 
more than one hundred American citizens were among 
those who perished made it the duty of the Government of 
the United States to speak of these things and once more, 
with solemn emphasis, to call the attention of the Im- 
perial German Government to the grave responsibility which 
the Government of the United Sates conceives that it has 
incurred in this tragic occurrence, and to the indisputable 
principle upon which that responsibility rests. The Gov- 
ernment of the United States is contending for something 
much greater than mere rights of property or privileges of 



274 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

commerce. It is contending for nothing less high and 
sacred than the rights of humanity, which every Govern- 
ment honors itself in respecting and which no Govern- 
ment is justified in resigning on behalf of those under its 
care and authority. Only her actual resistance to capture 
or refusal to stop when ordered to do so for the purpose of 
visit could have afforded the commander of the submarine 
any justification for so much as putting the lives of those 
on board the ship in jeopardy. This principle the Govern- 
ment of the United States understands the explicit instruc- 
tions issued on August 3, 19 14, by the Imperial German 
Admiralty to its commanders at sea to have recognized and 
embodied, as do the naval codes of all other nations, and 
upon it every traveler and seaman had a right to depend. 
It is upon this principle of humanity as well as upon the 
law founded upon this principle that the United States 
must stand. 

The Government of the United States is happy to ob- 
serve that Your Excellency's note closes with the intima- 
tion that the Imperial German Government is willing, now 
as before, to accept the good offices of the United States 
in an attempt to come to an understanding with the Govern- 
ment of Great Britain by which the character and condi- 
tions of the war upon the sea may be changed. The Gov- 
ernment of the United States would consider it a privilege 
thus to serve its friends and the world. It stands ready 
at any time to convey to either Government any intimation 
or suggestion the other may be willing to have it convey 
and cordially invites the Imperial German Government to 
make use of its services in this way at its convenience. 
The whole world is concerned in anything that may bring 
about even a partial accommodation of interests or in any 
way mitigate the terrors of the present distressing conflict. 

In the meantime, whatever arrangement may happily 



SECOND LUSITANIA NOTE 275 

be made between the parties to the war, and whatever may 
in the opinion of the Imperial German Government have 
been the provocation or the circumstantial justification for 
the past acts of its commanders at sea, the Government of 
the United States confidently looks to see the justice and 
humanity of the Government of Germany vindicated in 
all cases where Americans have been wronged or their 
rights as neutrals invaded. 

The Government of the United States therefore very 
earnestly and very solemnly renews the representations of 
its note transmitted to the Imperial German Government on 
the 15th of May, and relies in these representations upon 
the principles of humanity, the universally recognized un- 
derstandings of international law, and the ancient friend- 
ship of the German nation. 

The Government of the United States can not admit that 
the proclamation of a war zone from which neutral ships 
have been warned to keep away may be made to operate as 
in any degree an abbreviation of the rights either of Amer- 
ican shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful 
errands as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent na- 
tionality. It does not understand the Imperial German 
Government to question those rights. It understands it, 
also, to accept as established beyond question the principle 
that the lives of noncombatants can not lawfully or right- 
fully be put in jeopardy by the capture or destruction of an 
unresisting merchantman, and to recognize the obligation 
to take sufficient precaution to ascertain whether a sus- 
pected merchantman is in fact of belligerent nationality or 
is in fact carrying contraband of war under a neutral flag. 
The Government of the United States therefore deems it 
reasonable to expect that the Imperial German Govern- 
ment will adopt the measures necessary to put these princi- 
ples into practice in respect of the safeguarding of American 



276 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

lives and American ships, and asks for assurances that this 
will be done. 



GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE: THIRD 
LUSITANIA NOTE 

40. Commtinication of Secretary Lansing to 
Ambassador Gerard. July 21, IQ13 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. 2, p. 178) 

The note of the Imperial German Government, dated 
the 8th of July, 1915/ has received the careful consid- 
eration of the Government of the United States, and it 
regrets to be obliged to say that it has found it very unsat- 
isfactory, because it fails to meet the real differences be- 
tween the two Governments and indicates no way in which 
the accepted principles of law and humanity may be ap- 
plied in the grave matter in controversy, but purposes, on 
the contrary, arrangements for a partial suspension of 
those principles which virtually set them aside. 

The Government of the United States notes with satis- 
faction that the Imperial German Government recognizes 
without reservation the validity of the principles insisted 
on in the several communications which this Government 
has addressed to the Imperial German Government with re- 
gard to its announcement of a war zone and the use of 
submarines against merchantmen on the high seas — the 
principle that the high seas are free, that the character 
and cargo of a merchantman must first be ascertained before 
she can lawfully be seized or destroyed, and that the lives 
of noncombatants may in no case be put in jeopardy un- 
less the vessel resists or seeks to escape after being sum- 

1 Published in Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, 
European War Series, No. 2, p. 175, 



THIRD LUSITANIA NOTE 277 

moned to submit to examination ; for a belligerent act of 
retaliation is per se an act beyond the law, and the defense 
of an act as retaliatory is an admission that it is illegal. 

The Government of the United States is, however, keenly 
disappointed to find that the Imperial German Government 
regards itself as in large degree exempt from the obliga- 
tion to observe these principles, even where neutral vessels 
are concerned, by what it believes the policy and practice of 
the Government of Great Britain to be in the present war 
with regard to neutral commerce. The Imperial German 
Government will readily understand that the Government 
of the United States can not discuss the policy of the Gov- 
ernment of Great Britain with regard to neutral trade ex- 
cept with that Government itself, and that it must regard 
the conduct of other belligerent governments as irrelevant 
to any discussion with the Imperial German Government of 
what this Government regards as grave and unjustifiable 
violations of the rights of American citizens by German 
naval commanders. Illegal and inhuman acts, however 
justifiable they may be thought to be against an enemy who 
is believed to have acted in contravention of law and hu- 
manity, are manifestly indefensible when they deprive neu- 
trals of their acknowledged rights, particularly when they 
violate the right to life itself. If a belligerent can not re- 
taliate against an enemy without injuring the lives of neu- 
trals, as well as their property, humanity, as well as justice 
and a due regard for the dignity of neutral powers, should 
dictate that the practice be discontinued. If persisted in 
it would in such circumstances constitute an unpardonable 
offense against the sovereignty of the neutral nation af- 
fected. The Government of the United States is not un- 
mindful of the extraordinary conditions created by this 
war or of the radical alterations of circumstance and method 
of attack produced by the use of instrumentalities of naval 



278 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

warfare which the nations of the world can not have had in 
view when the existing rules of international law were 
formulated, and it is ready to make every reasonable al- 
lowance for these novel and unexpected aspects of war at 
sea ; but it can not consent to abate any essential or funda- 
mental right of its people because of a mere alteration of 
circumstance. The rights of neutrals in time of war are 
based upon principle, not upon expediency, and the princi- 
ples are immutable. It is the duty and obligation of bellig- 
erents to find a way to adapt the new circumstances to 
them. 

The events of the past two months have clearly indi- 
cated that it is possible and practicable to conduct such 
submarine operations as have characterized the activity of 
the Imperial German Navy within the so-called war zone 
in substantial accord with the accepted practices of regu- 
lated warfare. The whole world has looked with interest 
and increasing satisfaction at the demonstration of that 
possibility by German naval commanders. It is manifestly 
possible, therefore, to lift the whole practice of submarine 
attack above the criticism which it has aroused and re- 
move the chief causes of offense. 

In view of the admission of illegality made by the Im- 
perial Government when it pleaded the right of retaliation 
in defense of its acts, and in view of the manifest possi- 
bility of conforming to the established rules of naval war- 
fare, the Government of the United States can not believe 
that the Imperial Government will longer refrain from 
disavowing the wanton act of its naval commander in 
sinking the Lusitania or from offering reparation for the 
American lives lost, so far as reparation can be made for 
a needless destruction of human life by an illegal act. 

The Government of the United States, while not indiffer- 
ent to the friendly spirit in which it is made, can not ac- 



THIRD LUSITANIA NOTE 279 

cept the suggestion of the Imperial German Government 
that certain vessels be designated and agreed upon which 
shall be free on the seas now illegally proscribed. The 
very agreement would, by implication, subject other ves- 
sels to illegal attack and would be a curtailment and there- 
fore an abandonment of the principles for which this Gov- 
ernment contends and which in times of calmer counsels 
every nation would concede as of course. 

The Government of the United States and the Imperial 
German Government are contending for the same great ob- 
ject, have long stood together in urging the very princi- 
ples, upon which the Government of the United States 
now so solemnly insists. They are both contending for 
the freedom of the seas. The Government of the United 
States will continue to contend for that freedom, from 
whatever quarter violated, without compromise and at any 
cost. It invites the practical co-operation of the Imperial 
German Government at this time when co-operation may 
accomplish most and this great common object be most 
strikingly and effectively achieved. 

The Imperial German Government expresses the hope 
that this object may be in some measure accomplished even 
before the present war ends. It can be. The Government 
of the United States not only feels obliged to insist upon 
it, by whomsoever violated or ignored, in the protection of 
its own citizens, but is also deeply interested in seeing it 
made practicable between the belligerents themselves, and 
holds itself ready at any time to act as the common friend 
who may be privileged to suggest a way. 

In the meantime the very value which this Government 
sets upon the long and unbroken friendship between the 
people and Government of the United States and the peo- 
ple and Government of the German nation impels it to press 
very solemnly upon the Imperial German Government the 



28o STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

necessity for a scrupulous observance of neutral rights in 
this critical matter. Friendship itself prompts it to say 
to the Imperial Government that repetition by the com- 
manders of German naval vessels of acts in contravention 
of those rights must be regarded by the Government of the 
United States, when they affect American citizens, as de- 
liberately unfriendly. 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO: LATIN 
AMERICAN AID 

41. Communication of Secretary Lansing and the diplo- 
matic representatives at Washington of Argentina, 
Bolizna, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay to 
all generals, governors, and other leaders knovim to 
he exercising civil or military authority in Mexico. 
August II, 191 5 

{American Journal of International Laiv, X, 364) 

Inspired by the most sincere spirit of American fra- 
ternity, and convinced that they rightly interpret the ear- 
nest wish of the entire continent [the above mentioned 
representatives] have met informally at the suggestion of 
the Secretary of State of the United States to consider 
the Mexican situation and to ascertain whether their 
friendly and disinterested help could be successfully em- 
ployed to reestablish peace and constitutional order in our 
sister Republic. i 

In the heat of the frightful struggle which for so long 
has steeped in blood the Mexican soil, doubtless all may 
well have lost sight of the dissolving effects of the strife 
upon the most vital conditions of the national existence, 
not only upon the life and liberty of the inhabitants, but 



LATIN AMERICAN AID 281 

on the prestige and security of the country. We can not 
doubt, however — no one can doubt — that in the presence 
of a sympathetic appeal from their brothers of America, 
recalHng to them these disastrous effects, asking them to 
save their motherland from an abyss — no one can doubt, 
we repeat — that the patriotism of the men who lead or 
aid in any way the bloody strife will not remain unmoved; 
no one can doubt that each and every one of them, meas- 
uring in his own conscience his share in the responsibilities 
of past misfortune and looking forward to his share in 
the glory of the pacification and reconstruction of the 
country, will respond, nobly and resolutely, to this friendly 
appeal and give their best efforts to opening the way to 
some saving action. 

We, the undersigned, believe that if the men directing 
the armed movements in Mexico — whether political or 
military chiefs — should agree to meet, either in person 
or by delegates, far from the sound of cannon, and with 
no other inspiration save the thought of their afflicted land, 
there to exchange ideas and to determine the fate of the 
country — from such action would undoubtedly result the 
strong and unyielding agreement requisite to the creation 
of a provisional government, which should adopt the first 
steps necessary to the constitutional reconstruction of the 
country — and to issue the first and most essential of them 
all, the immediate call to general elections. 

An adequate place within the Mexican frontiers, which 
for the purpose might be neutralized, should serve as the 
seat of the conference ; and in order to bring about a con- 
ference of this nature the undersigned, or any of them, 
will willingly, upon invitation, act as intermediaries to ar- 
range the time, place, and other details of such conference, 
if this action can in any way aid the Mexican people. 

The undersigned expect a reply to this communication 



282 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTR.\TION 

within a reasonable time; and consider that such a time 
would be ten days after the communication is delivered, 
subject to prorogation for cause. 



THE PURPOSE OF THE UNITED STATES 

42. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

September 28, ipi^ 

(From the official printed text; for the entire address see New York 
Times, September 29, 1915) 

. . . There have been other nations as rich as we ; there 
have been other nations as powerful ; there have been other 
nations as spirited ; but I hope we shall never forget that we 
created this Nation, not to serve ourselves, but to serve man- 
kind. 

I hope I may say without even an implication of criticism 
upon any other great people in the world that it has always 
seemed to me that the people of the United States wished 
to be regarded as devoted to the promotion of particu- 
lar principles of human right. The United States were 
founded, not to provide free homes, but to assert human 
rights. This flag meant a great enterprise of the human 
spirit. . . . 



THE SPIRIT OF A PREPAREDNESS PROGRAAI 

43. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

October 6, ipij 

(New York Times, October 7, 191 5) 

I think the whole nation is convinced that we ought to be 
prepared, not for war, but for defense, and very ade- 



PRESERVATION OF FOUNDATION OF PEACE 283 

quately prepared, and that the preparation for defense is 
not merely a technical matter, that it is not a matter that 
the Army and Navy alone can take care of, but a matter in 
which we must have the co-operation of the best brains and 
knowledge of the country, outside the official service of the 
Government, as well as inside. 

For my part, I feel that it is only in the spirit of a true 
democracy that we get together to lend such voluntary aid, 
the sort of aid that comes from interest, from a knowl- 
edge of the varied circumstances that are involved in han- 
dling a nation. 

I do not have to expound it to you ; you know as well as 
I do the spirit of America. The spirit of America is one 
of peace, but one of independence. It is a spirit that is 
profoundly concerned with peace, because it can express 
itself best only in peace. It is the spirit of peace and good- 
will and of human freedom ; but it is also the spirit of a 
nation that is self-conscious, that knows and loves its mis- 
sion in the world, and that knows that it must command the 
respect of the world. 

So it seems to me that we are not working as those who 
would change anything of America, but only as those who 
would safeguard everything in America. 



PRESERVATION OF THE FOUNDATIONS OF 

PEACE 

44. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October 11, ipij 

(From the official printed text; for the entire address see New York 
Times, October 12, 1915) 

Neutrality is a negative word. It is a word that does not 



284 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

express what America ought to feel. America has a heart 
and that heart throbs with all sorts of intense sympathies, 
but America has schooled its heart to love the things that 
America believes in and it ought to devote itself only to the 
things that America believes in ; and, believing that Amer- 
ica stands apart in its ideals, it ought not to allow itself to be 
drawn, so far as its heart is concerned, into anybody's quar- 
rel. Not because it does not understand the quarrel, not 
because it does not in its head assess the merits of the 
controversy, but because America has promised the world 
to stand apart and maintain certain principles of action 
which are grounded in law and in justice. We are not 
trying to keep out of trouble; we are trying to preserve the 
foundations upon which peace can be rebuilt. Peace can 
be rebuilt only upon the ancient and accepted principles of 
international law, only upon those things which remind 
nations of their duties to each other, and, deeper than that, 
of their duties to mankind and to humanity. 

America has a great cause which is not confined to the 
American Continent. It is the cause of humanity itself. 
I do not mean that in anything I say even to imply a judg- 
ment upon any nation or upon any policy, for my object here 
this afternoon is not to sit in judgment upon anybody but 
ourselves and to challenge you to assist all of us who are 
trying to make America more than ever conscious of her 
own principles and her own duty. I look forward to the 
necessity in every political agitation in the years which are 
immediately at hand of calling upon every man to declare 
himself, where he stands. Is it America first or is it not? 

... I would not be afraid upon the test of " America 
first " to take a census of all the foreign-born citizens of the 
United States, for I know that the vast majority of them 
came here because they believed in America ; and their belief 
in America has made them better citizens that some people 



PRESERVATION OF FOUNDATION OF PEACE 285 

who were born in America. They can say that they have 
bought this privilege with a great price. They have left 
their homes, they have left their kindred, they have broken 
all the nearest and dearest ties of human life in order to 
come to a new land, take a new rootage, begin a new life, 
and so by self-sacrifice express their confidence in a new 
principle ; whereas, it cost us none of these things. We 
were born into this privilege ; we were rocked and cradled 
in it; we did nothing to create it; and it is, therefore, the 
greater duty on our part to do a great deal to enhance it 
and preserve it. I am not deceived as to the balance of 
opinion among the foreign-born citizens of the United 
States, but I am in a hurry for an opportunity to have a 
line-up and let the men who are thinking first of other coun- 
tries stand on one side and all those that are for America 
first, last, and all the time on the other side. 

I would not feel any exhilaration in belonging to America 
if I did not feel that she was something more than a rich 
and powerful nation. I should not feel proud to be in 
some respects and for a little while her spokesman if I did 
not believe that there was something else than physical 
force behind her. I believe that the glory of America is 
that she is a great spiritual conception and that in the spirit 
of her institutions dwells not only her distinction but her 
power. The one thing that the world cannot permanently 
resist is the moral force of great and triumphant convictions. 



286 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

BRITISH RESTRAINTS ON COMMERCE 

45. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Lansing 
to Ambassador IV. H. Page. October 21, ipi^ 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. 3, p. 37) 

I believe it has been conclusively shown that the methods 
sought to be employed by Great Britain to obtain and use 
evidence of enemy destination of cargoes bound for neutral 
ports and to impose a contraband character upon such 
cargoes are without justification ; that the blockade, upon 
which such methods are partly founded, is ineffective, 
illegal, and indefensible: that the judicial procedure offered 
as a means of reparation for an international injury is in- 
herently defective for the purpose ; and that in many cases 
jurisdiction is asserted in violation of the law of nations. 
The United States, therefore, can not submit to the cur- 
tailment of its neutral rights by these measures, which are 
admittedly retaliatory, and therefore illegal, in conception 
and in nature, and intended to punish the enemies of Great 
Britain for alleged illegalities on their part. The United 
States might not be in a position to object to them if its 
interests and the interests of all neutrals were unaffected 
by them, but, being affected, it can not with complacence 
suffer further subordination of its rights and interests to 
the plea that the exceptional geographic position of the 
enemies of Great Britain require or justify oppressive and 
illegal practices. 

The Government of the United States desires, therefore, 
to impress most earnestly upon His Majesty's Government 
that it must insist that the relations between it and His 
Majesty's Government be governed, not by a policy of ex- 
pediency, but by those established rules of international 



PREPAREDNESS FOR DEFENSE 287 

conduct upon which Great Britain in the past has held the 
United States to account when the latter nation was a 
belligerent engaged in a struggle for national existence. 
It is of the highest importance to neutrals not only of the 
present day but of the future that the principles of inter- 
national right be maintained unimpaired. 

This task of championing the integrity of neutral rights, 
which have received the sanction of the civilized world 
against the lawless conduct of belligerents arising out of 
the bitterness of the great conflict which is now wasting 
the countries of Europe, the United States unhesitatingly 
assumes, and to the accomplishment of that task it will 
devote its energies, exercising always that impartiality 
which from the outbreak of the war it has sought to exer- 
cise in its relations with the warring nations. 



PREPAREDNESS FOR DEFENSE 

46. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
November 4, 191 3 

(From the official printed text; for the entire address see Current 
History, Xcw York Times, III, 488) 

A year and a half ago our thought would have been 
almost altogether of great domestic questions. They are 
many and of vital consequence. AVe must and shall address 
ourselves to their solution with diligence, firmness, and 
self-possession, notwithstanding we find ourselves in the 
midst of a world disturbed by great disaster and ablaze 
with terrible war; but our thought is now inevitably of new 
things about which formerly we gave ourselves little con- 
cern. We are thinking now chiefly of our relations with 
the rest of the world, — not our commercial relations, — about 
those we have thought and planned always, — but about 



288 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

our political relations, our duties as an individual and inde- 
pendent force in the world to ourselves, our neighbors, 
and the world itself. 

Our principles are well known. It is not necessary to 
avow them again. We believe in political liberty and 
founded our great government to obtain it, the liberty of 
men and of peoples, — of men to choose their own lives 
and of peoples to choose their own allegiance. Our ambi- 
tion, also, all the world has knowledge of. It is not only 
to be free and prosperous ourselves, but also to be the 
friend and thoughtful partisan of those who are free or 
who desire freedom the world over. If we have had ag- 
gressive purposes and covetous ambitions, they were the 
fruit of our thoughtless youth as a nation and we have 
put them aside. We shall, I confidently believe, never 
again take another foot of territory by conquest. We shall 
never in any circumstances seek to make an independent 
people subject to our dominion; because we believe, we 
passionately believe, in the right of every people to choose 
their own allegiance and be free of masters altogether. 
For ourselves we wish nothing but the full liberty of 
self -development; and with ourselves in this great matter 
we associate all the peoples of our own hemisphere. We 
wish not only for the United States but for them the 
fullest freedom of independent growth and of action, for 
we know that throughout this hemisphere the same aspira- 
tions are everywhere being worked out, under diverse con- 
ditions but with the same impulse and ultimate object. 

. . . Within a year we have witnessed what we did not 
believe possible, a great European conflict involving many 
of the greatest nations of the world. The influences of a 
great war are everywhere in the air. All Europe is em- 
battled. Force everywhere speaks out with a loud and 
imperious voice in a titanic struggle of governments, and 



PREPAREDNESS FOR DEFENSE 289 

from one end of our own dear country to the other men 
are asking one another what our own force is, how far 
we are prepared to maintain ourselves against any inter- 
ference with our national action or development. 

In no man's mind, I am sure, is there even raised the 
question of the willful use of force on our part against 
any nation or any people. No matter what military or 
naval force the United States might develop, statesmen 
throughout the whole world might rest assured that we 
were gathering that force, not for attack in any quarter, 
not for aggression of any kind, not for the satisfaction of 
any political or international ambition, but merely to make 
sure of our own security. We have it in mind to be pre- 
pared, not for war, but only for defense; and with the 
thought constantly in our minds that the principles we hold 
most dear can be achieved by the slow processes of history 
only in the kindly and wholesome atmosphere of peace, and 
not by the use of hostile force. The mission of America in 
the world is essentially a mission of peace and good-will 
among men. She has become the home and asylum of men 
of all creeds and races. Within her hospitable borders they 
have found homes and congenial associations and freedom 
and a wide and cordial welcome, and they have become part 
of the bone and sinew and spirit of America itself. America 
has been made up out of the nations of the world and is the 
friend of the nations of the world. 

But we feel justified in preparing ourselves to vindicate 
our right to independent and unmolested action by making 
the force that is in us ready for assertion. 

And we know that we can do this in a way that will 
be itself an illustration of the American spirit. In accord- 
ance with our American traditions we want and shall work 
for only an army adequate to the constant and legitimate 
uses of times of international peace. But we do want to 



290 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

feel that there is a great body of citizens who have received 
at least the most rudimentary and necessary forms of mili- 
tary training; that they will be ready to form themselves 
into a fighting force at the call of the nation; and that the 
nation has the munitions and supplies with which to equip 
them without delay should it be necessary to call them 
into action. \Xq wish to supply them with the training 
they need, and we think we can do so without calling 
them at any time too long away from their civilian pur- 
suits/ 
• 

What we all wish to accomplish is that the forces of 
the nation should indeed be part of the nation and not a 
separate professional force, and the chief cost of the system 
would not be in the enlistment or in the training of the 
men, but in the providing of ample equipment in case it 
should be necessary to call all forces into the field. 

Moreover, it has been American policy time out of 
mind to look to the Navy as the first and chief line of 
defense. The Navy of the United States is already a very 
great and efficient force. Not rapidly, but slowly, with 
careful attention, our naval force has been developed until 
the Navy of the United States stands recognized as one 
of the most efficient and notable of the modern time. All 
that is needed in order to bring it to a point of extraordi- 
nary force and efficiency as compared with the other navies 
of the world is that we should hasten our pace in the policy 
we have long been pursuing, and that chief of all we should 
have a definite policy of development, not made from year 
to year but looking well into the future and planning for a 
definite consummation. . . . 

No thoughtful man feels any panic haste in this matter. 

1 At this point the President elaborated the features of the ad- 
ministration's plans for the array. 



PREPAREDNESS FOR DEFENSE 291 

The country is not threatened from any quarter. She 
stands in friendly relations with all the world. Her re- 
sources are known and her self-respect and her capacity 
to care for her own citizens and her own rights. There is 
no fear amongst us. Under the new-world conditions we 
have become thoughtful of the things which all reasonable 
men consider necessary for security and self-defense on 
the part of every nation confronted with the great enter- 
prise of human liberty and independence. That is all. 

Is the plan we propose sane and reasonable and suited 
to the needs of the hour? Does it not conform to the 
ancient traditions of America? Has any better plan been 
proposed than this programme that we now place before 
the country? In it there is no pride of opinion. It rep- 
resents the best professional and expert judgment of the 
country. But I am not so much interested in programmes 
as I am in safeguarding at every cost the good faith and 
honor of the country. . . . 

. . . For the time being, I speak as the trustee and guard- 
ian of a nation's rights, charged with the duty of speaking for 
that nation in matters involving her sovereignty, — a nation 
too big and generous to be exacting and yet courageous 
enough to defend its rights and the liberties of its people 
wherever assailed or invaded. I would not feel that I 
was discharging the solemn obligation I owe the country 
were I not to speak in terms of the deepest solemnity of 
the urgency and necessity of preparing ourselves to guard 
and protect the rights and privileges of our people, our 
sacred heritage of the fathers who struggled to make us 
an independent nation. 

The only thing within our own borders that has given 
us grave concern in recent months has been that voices 
have been raised in America professing to be the voices of 
Americans which were not in deed and in truth American, 



292 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

but which spoke alien sympathies, which came from men 
who loved other countries better than they loved America, 
men who were partisans of other causes than that of 
America and had forgotten that their chief and only alle- 
giance was to the great government under w^iich they live. 
These voices have not been many, but they have been 
very loud and very clamorous. They have proceeded from 
a few who were bitter and who were grievously misled. 
America has not opened its doors in vain to men and 
women out of other nations. The vast majority of those 
who have come to take advantage of her hospitality have 
united their spirits with hers as well as their fortunes. 
These men who speak alien sympathies are not their spokes- 
men but are the spokesmen of small groups whom it is 
high time that the nation should call to a reckoning. The 
chief thing necessary in America in order that she should 
let all the world know that she is prepared to maintain 
her own great position is that the real voice of the nation 
should sound forth unmistakably and in majestic volume, 
in the deep unison of a common, unhesitating national feel- 
ing. I do not doubt that upon the first occasion, upon the 
first opportunity, upon the first definite challenge, that voice 
will speak forth in tones which no man can doubt and 
with commands which no man dare gainsay or resist. 

May I not say, while I am speaking of this, that there 
is another danger that we should guard against? We 
should rebuke not only manifestations of racial feeling here 
in America where there should be none, but also every 
manifestation of religious and sectarian antagonism. It 
does not become America that within her borders, where 
every man is free to follow the dictates of his conscience 
and worship God as he pleases, men should raise the cry 
of church against church. To do that is to strike at the 
very spirit and heart of America. We are a God-fearing 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FOREIGN POLICY 293 

people. We agree to differ about methods of worship, but 
we are united in beUeving in Divine Providence and in wor- 
shipping the God of Nations. We are the champions of 
rehgious right here and everywhere that it may be our privi- 
lege to give it our countenance and support. The govern- 
ment is conscious of the obligation and the nation is con- 
scious of the obligation. Let no man create divisions where 
there are none. 

Here is the nation God has builded by our hands. What 
shall we do with it? Who is there who does not stand 
ready at all times to act in her behalf in a spirit of devoted 
and disinterested patriotism ? We are yet only in the youth 
and first consciousness of our power. The day of our 
country's life is still but in its fresh morning. Let us lift 
our eyes to the great tracts of life yet to be conquered in 
the interests of righteous peace. Come, let us renew our 
allegiance to America, conserve her strength in its purity, 
make her chief among those who serve mankind, self- 
reverenced, self-commanded, mistress of all forces of quiet 
counsel, strong above all others in good will and the might 
of invincible justice and right. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FOREIGN POLICY 

47. Extract from the Annual Message of the President. 

December j, ^9^5 

(Congressional Record, LIII, 95) 

Gentlemen of the Congress, since I last had the privilege 
of addressing you on the state of the Union the war of 
nations on the other side of the sea, which had then only 
begun to disclose its portentous proportions, has extended 
its threatening and sinister scope until it has swept within 
its flame some portion of every quarter of the globe, not 
excepting our own hemisphere, has altered the whole face 



294 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

of international affairs, and now presents a prospect of 
reorganization and reconstruction such as statesmen and 
peoples have never been called upon to attempt before. 

We have stood apart, studiously neutral. It was our 
manifest duty to do so. Not only did we have no part of 
interest in the policies which seem to have brought the 
conflict on ; it was necessary, if a universal catastrophe 
was to be avoided, that a limit should be set to the sweep 
of destructive war and that some part of the great family 
of nations should keep the processes of peace alive, if 
only to prevent collective economic ruin and the break- 
down throughout the world of the industries by which its 
populations are fed and sustained. It was manifestly the 
duty of the self-governed nations of this hemisphere to 
redress, if possible, the balance of economic loss and con- 
fusion in the other, if they could do nothing more. In 
the day of readjustment and recuperation we earnestly hope 
and believe that they can be of infinite service. 

In this neutrality, to which they were bidden not only 
by their separate life and their habitual detachment from 
the politics of Europe but also by a clear perception of 
international duty, the states of America have become con- 
scious of a new and more vital community of interest and 
moral partnership in affairs, more clearly conscious of the 
many common sympathies and interests and duties which 
bid them stand together. 

There was a time in the early days of our own great 
nation and of the republics fighting their way to inde- 
pendence in Central and South America when the govern- 
ment of the United States looked upon itself as in some 
sort the guardian of the republics to the south of her as 
against any encroachments or efforts at political control 
from the other side of the water; felt it its duty to play 
the part even without invitation from them ; and I think that 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FOREIGN POLICY 295 

we can claim that the task was undertaken with a true and 
disinterested enthusiasm for the freedom of the Americas 
and the unmolested self-government of her independent peo- 
ples. But it was always difficult to maintain such a role 
without offense to the pride of the peoples whose freedom of 
action we sought to protect, and without provoking serious 
misconceptions of our motives, and every thoughtful man 
of affairs must welcome the altered circumstances of the 
new day in whose light we now stand, when there is no 
claim of guardianship or thought of wards, but, instead, 
a full and honourable association as of partners between 
ourselves and our neighbours, in the interest of all America, 
north and south. Our concern for the independence and 
prosperity of the states of Central and South America is 
not altered. We retain unabated the spirit that has in- 
spired us throughout the whole life of our government 
and which was so frankly put into words by President 
Monroe. We still mean always to make a common cause 
of national independence and of political liberty in America. 
But that purpose is now better understood so far as it 
concerns ourselves. It is known not to be a selfish pur- 
pose. It is known to have in it no thought of taking advan- 
tage of any government in this hemisphere or playing its 
political fortunes for our own benefit. All the govern- 
ments of America stand, so far as we are concerned, upon 
a footing of genuine equality and unquestioned independ- 
ence. 

We have been put to the test in the case of ]\Iexico, and 
we have stood the test. Whether we have benefited Mexico 
by the course we have pursued remains to be seen. Her 
fortunes are in her own hands. But we have at least 
proved that we will not take advantage of her in her dis- 
tress and undertake to impose upon her an order and gov- 
ernment of our own choosing. Liberty is often a fierce and 



296 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

intractable thing, to which no bounds can be set, and to 
which no bounds of a few men's choosing ought ever to 
be set. Every American who has drunk at the true foun- 
tains of principle and tradition must subscribe without 
reservation to the high doctrine of the V^irginia Bill of 
Rights, which in the great days in which our government 
was set up was everywhere amongst us accepted as the 
creed of free men. That doctrine is, " That government 
is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protec- 
tion, and security of the people, nation, or community"; 
that " of all the various modes and forms of government, 
that is the best which is capable of producing the greatest 
degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually 
secured against the danger of maladministration ; and that, 
when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary 
to these purposes a majority of the community hath an 
indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, 
alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most 
conducive to the public weal." We have unhesitatingly 
applied that heroic principle to the case of Mexico, and 
now hopefully await the rebirth of the troubled Republic, 
which had so much of which to purge itself and so little 
sympathy from any outside quarter in the radical but 
necessary process. We will aid and befriend Mexico, but 
we will not coerce her ; and our course with regard to 
her ought to be sufficient proof to all America that we 
seek no political suzerainty or selfish control. 

The moral is, that the states of America are not hostile 
rivals but co-operating friends, and that their growing sense 
of community of interest, alike in matters political and 
in matters economic, is likely to give them a new significance 
as factors in international affairs and in the political his- 
tory of the world. It presents them as in a very deep 
and true sense a unit in world affairs, spiritual partners, 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FOREIGN POLICY 297 

standing together because thinking together, quick with 
common sympathies and common ideals. Separated they 
are subject to all the cross currents of the confused politics 
of a world of hostile rivalries ; united in spirit and purpose 
they cannot be disappointed of their peaceful destiny. 

This is Pan-Americanism. It has none of the spirit of 
empire in it. It is the embodiment, the effectual embodi- 
ment, of the spirit of law and independence and liberty and 
mutual service. A very notable body of men recently met 
in the City of Washington, at the invitation and as the 
guests of this Government, whose deliberations are likely 
to be looked back to as marking a memorable turning pomt 
in the history of America. They were representative 
spokesmen of the several independent states of this hemi- 
sphere and were assembled to discuss the financial and com- 
mercial relations of the republics of the two continents 
which nature and political fortune have so intimately linked 
together. I earnestly recommend to your perusal the re- 
ports of their proceedings and of the actions of their com- 
mittees. You will get from them, I think, a fresh concep- 
tion of the ease and intelligence and advantage with which 
Americans of both continents may draw together in prac- 
tical cooperation and of what the material foundations of 
this hopeful partnership of interest must consist, — of how 
we should build them and of how necessary it is that we 
should hasten their building. 

There is, I venture to point out, an especial significance 
just now attaching to this whole matter of drawing the 
Americas together in bonds of honourable partnership and 
mutual advantage because of the economic readjustments 
which the world must inevitably witness within the next 
generation, when peace shall have at last resumed its 
healthful tasks. In the performance of these tasks I believe 
the Americas to be destined to play their parts together. 



298 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

I am interested to fix your attention on this prospect now 
because unless you take it within your view and permit 
the full significance of it to command your thought I cannot 
find the right hght in which to set forth the particular 
matter that lies at the very front of my whole thought as 
I address you to-day. I mean national defense. 

No one who really comprehends the spirit of the great 
people for whom we are appointed to speak can fail to 
perceive that their passion is for peace, their genius best 
displayed in the practice of the arts of peace. Great democ- 
racies are not belligerent. They do not seek or desire war. 
Their thought is of individual liberty and of the free 
labour that supports life and the uncensored thought that 
quickens it. Conquest and domination are not in our reck- 
oning, or agreeable to our principles. But just because we 
demand unmolested development and the undisturbed gov- 
ernment of our own lives upon our own principles of right 
and liberty, we resent, from whatever quarter it may come, 
the aggression we ourselves will not practice. We insist 
upon security in prosecuting our self-chosen lines of na- 
tional development. We do more than that. We demand 
it also for others. We do not confine our enthusiasm for 
individual liberty and free national development to the 
incidents and movements of affairs which affect only our- 
selves. We feel it wherever there is a people that tries 
to walk in these difficult paths of independence and right.^ 
From the first we have made common cause with all par- 
tisans of liberty on this side the sea, and have deemed it 
as important that our neighbors should be free from all 
outside domination as that we ourselves should be ; have 
set America aside as a whole for the uses of independent 
nations and political free men. 

Out of such thoughts grow all our policies. We regard 
war merely as a means of asserting the rights of a people 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FOREIGN POLICY 299 

against aggression. And we are as fiercely jealous of 
coercive or dictatorial power within our own nation as of 
aggression from without. We will not maintain a stand- 
ing army except for uses which are as necessary in times 
of peace as in times of war; and we shall always see to 
it that our military peace establishment is no larger than is 
actually and continuously needed for the uses of days in 
which no enemies move against us. But we do believe in 
a body of free citizens ready and sufficient to take care 
of themselves and of the governments which they have 
set up to serve them. In our constitutions themselves we 
have commanded that " the right of the people to keep and 
bear arms shall not be infringed," and our confidence has 
been that our safety in times of danger would lie in the 
rising of the nation to take care of itself, as the farmers 
rose at Lexington. 

But war has never been a mere matter of men and guns. 
It is a thing of disciplined might. If our citizens are ever 
to fight effectively upon a sudden summons, they must 
know how modern fighting is done, and what to do when 
the summons comes to render themselves immediately avail- 
able and immediately effective. And the government must 
be their servant in this matter, must supply them with the 
training they need to take care of themselves and of it. 
The military arm of their government, which they will not 
allow to direct them, they may properly use to serve them 
and make their independence secure, — and not their own 
independence merely but the rights also of those with whom 
they have made common cause, should they also be put in 
jeopardy. They must be fitted to play the great role in 
the world, and particularly in this hemisphere, for w^iich 
they are qualified by principle and by chastened ambition 
to play. 

It is with these ideals in mind that the plans of the 



300 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

Department of War for more adequate national defense 
were conceived which will be laid before you, and which I 
urge you to sanction and put into effect as soon as they 
can be properly scrutinized and discussed. They seem to 
me the essential first steps, and they seem to me for the 
present sufficient. 



THE PAN-AMERICAN PROGRAM OF THE 
ADMINISTRATION 

48. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
January 6, ipi6 

(New York Times, January 7, 1916) 

The Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed by the United 
States on her own authority. It has always been main- 
tained, and always will be maintained, upon her own re- 
sponsibility. But the Monroe Doctrine demanded merely 
that European Governments should not attempt to extend 
their political systems to this side of the Atlantic. It did 
not disclose the use which the United States intended to 
make of her power on this side of the Atlantic. It was 
a hand held up in warning, but there was no promise in 
it of what America was going to do with the implied and 
partial protectorate which she apparently was trying to set 
up on this side of the water, and I believe you will sustain 
me in the statement that it has been fears and suspicions 
on this score which have hitherto prevented the greater 
intimacy and confidence and trust between the Americas. 
The states of America have not been certain what the 
United States would do with her power. That doubt must 
be removed. And latterly there has been a very frank 



THE PAN-AMERICAN PROGRAM 301 

interchange of views between the authorities in Washington 
and those who represented the other states of this hemi- 
sphere, an interchange of views charming and hopeful, 
because based upon an increasingly sure appreciation of 
the spirit in which they were undertaken. These gentle- 
men have seen that, if America is to come into her own, 
into her legitimate own, in a world of peace and order, she 
must establish the foundations of amity, so that no one will 
hereafter doubt them. 

I hope and I believe that this can be accompHshed. These 
conferences have enabled me to foresee how it will be ac- 
complished. It will be accomplished, in the first place, by 
the states of America uniting in guaranteeing to each other 
absolute political independence and territorial integrity. In 
the second place, and as a necessary corollary to that, guar- 
anteeing the agreement to settle all pending boundary dis- 
putes as soon as possible and by amiable process ; by agree- 
ing that all disputes among themselves, should they unhap- 
pily arise, will be handled by patient, impartial investiga- 
tion and settled by arbitration ; and the agreement neces- 
sary to the peace of the Americas, that no state of either 
continent will permit revolutionary expeditions against an- 
other state to be fitted out on its territory, and that they 
will prohibit the exportation of the munitions of war for 
the purpose of supplying revolutionists against neighboring 
Governments.^ 

You see what our thought is, gentlemen, not only the 
international peace of America, but the domestic peace of 
America. If American states are constantly in ferment, 
if any of them are constantly in ferment, there will be a 
standing threat to their relations with one another. It is 

1 This paragraph contains the gist of proposals made by Secre- 
tary Lansing to the Latin American governments earher in the year. 
The complete text of the proposals was not published. 



302 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

just as much to our interest to assist each other to the 
orderly processes within our own borders as it is to orderly 
processes in our controversies with one another. These are 
very practical suggestions which have sprung up in the 
minds of thoughtful men, and I, for my part, believe that 
they are going to lead the way to something that America 
has prayed for for many a generation. For they are based, 
in the first place, so far as the stronger states are con- 
cerned, upon the handsome principle of self-restraint and 
respect for the rights of everybody. They are based upon 
the principles of absolute political equality among the 
states, equality of right, not equality of indulgence. 

They are based, in short, upon the solid, eternal founda- 
tions of justice and humanity. No man can turn away from 
these things without turning away from the hope of the 
world. These are things, ladies and gentlemen, for which 
the world has hoped and waited with prayerful heart. God 
grant that it may be granted to America to lift this light on 
high for the illumination of the world. 



ARMED MERCHANTMEN 

49. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Lansing 
to the British Ambassador.'^ January 18, 1Q16 

(Department of State, Di/^lomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. 3, p. 162) 

... It is matter of the deepest interest to my Govern- 
ment to bring to an end, if possible, the dangers to life 
which attend the use of submarines as at present employed 
in destroying enemy commerce on the high seas, since on 
any merchant vessel of belligerent nationality there may 

1 The same note was sent to the diplomatic representatives at 
Washington, of Belgium, France. Italy, Japan and Russia. 



ARMED MERCHANTMEN 303 

be citizens of the United States who have taken passage 
or are members of the crew, in the exercise of their recog- 
nized rights as neutrals. I assume that your excellency's 
Government are equally solicitous to protect their nationals 
from the exceptional hazards which are presented by their 
passage on a merchant vessel through those portions of 
the high seas in which undersea craft of their enemy are 
operating. 

While I am fully alive to the appalling loss of life among 
noncombatants, regardless of age or sex, which has re- 
sulted from the present method of destroying merchant 
vessels without removing the persons on board to places of 
safety, and while I view that practice as contrary to those 
humane principles which should control belligerents in the 
conduct of their naval operations, I do not feel that a 
belligerent should be deprived of the proper use of sub- 
marines in the interruption of enemy commerce since those 
instruments of war have proven their effectiveness in this 
particular branch of warfare on the high seas. 

In order to bring submarine warfare within the general 
rules of international law and the principles of humanity 
without destroying its efficiency in the destruction of com- 
merce, I believe that a formula may be found which, though 
it may require slight modifications of the practice generally 
followed by nations prior to the employment of submarines, 
will appeal to the sense of justice and fairness of all the 
belligerents in the present war. 

Your excellency will understand that in seeking a formula 
or rule of this nature I approach it of necessity from the 
point of view of a neutral, but I believe that it will be 
equally efficacious in preserving the lives of all noncombat- 
ants on merchant vessels of belligerent nationality. 

My comments on this subject are predicated on the fol- 
lowing propositions : 



304 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

1. A noncombatant has a right to traverse the high seas 
in a merchant vessel entitled to fly a belligerent flag and 
to rely upon the observance of the rules of international 
law and principles of humanity if the vessel is approached 
by a naval vessel of another belligerent. 

2. A merchant vessel of enemy nationality should not 
be attacked without being ordered to stop. 

3. An enemy merchant vessel, when ordered to do so by 
a belligerent submarine, should immediately stop. 

4. Such vessel should not be attacked after being ordered 
to stop unless it attempts to flee or to resist, and in case 
it ceases to .flee or resist, the attack should discontinue. 

5. In the event that it is impossible to place a prize crew 
on board of an enemy merchant vessel or convoy it into 
port, the vessel may be sunk, provided the crew and pas- 
sengers have been removed to a place of safety. 

In complying with the foregoing propositions which, in 
my opinion, embody the principal rules, the strict observance 
of which will insure the life of a noncombatant on a mer- 
chant vessel which is intercepted by a submarine, I am not 
unmindful of the obstacles which would be met by under- 
sea craft as commerce destroyers. 

Prior to the year 1915 belligerent operations against 
enemy commerce on the high seas had been conducted 
with cruisers carrying heavy armaments. Under these con- 
ditions international law appeared to permit a merchant 
vessel to carry an armament for defensive purposes without 
losing its character as a private commercial vessel. This 
right seems to have been predicated on the superior defen- 
sive strength of ships of war, and the limitation of arma- 
ment to have been dependent on the fact that it could not be 
used effectively in ofifense against enemy naval vessels, 
while it could defend the merchantmen against the generally 
inferior armament of piratical ships and privateers. 



ARMED MERCHANTMEN 30S 

The use of the submarine, however, has changed these 
relations. Comparison of the defensive strength of a 
cruiser and a submarine shows that the latter, relying for 
protection on its power to submerge, is almost defenseless 
in point of construction. Even a merchant ship carrying 
a small caliber gun would be able to use it effectively for 
offense against a submarine. Moreover, pirates and sea 
rovers have been swept from the main trade channels of 
the seas, and privateering has been abolished. Conse- 
quently, the placing of guns on merchantmen at the present 
day of submarine warfare can be explained only on the 
ground of a purpose to render merchantmen superior in 
force to submarines and to prevent warning and visit and 
search by them. Any armament, therefore, on a merchant 
vessel would seem to have the character of an offensive 
armament. 

If a submarine is required to stop and search a merchant 
vessel on the high seas and, in case it is found that she is 
of enemy character and that conditions necessitate her 
destruction, to remove to a place of safety all persons on 
board, it would not seem just or reasonable that the 
submarine should be compelled, while complying with these 
requirements, to expose itself to almost certain destruction 
by the guns on board the merchant vessel. 

It would, therefore, appear to be a reasonable and recipro- 
cally just arrangement if it could be agreed by the oppos- 
ing belligerents that submarines should be caused to ad- 
here strictly to the rules of international law in the matter 
of stopping and searching merchant vessels, determining 
their belligerent nationality, and removing the crews and 
passengers to places of safety before sinking the vessels 
as prizes of war, and that merchant vessels of belligerent 
nationality should be prohibited and prevented from carry- 
ing any armament whatsoever. 



3o6 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

In presenting this formula as a basis for conditional dec- 
larations by the belligerent Governments, I do so in the 
full conviction that your Government will consider prima- 
rily the humane purpose of saving the lives of innocent 
people rather than the insistence upon a doubtful legal 
right which may be denied on account of new conditions. 

I should add that my Government is impressed with the 
reasonableness of the argument that a merchant vessel carry- 
ing an armament of any sort, in view of the character of 
submarine warfare and the defensive weakness of under- 
sea craft, should be held to be an auxiliary cruiser and so 
treated by a neutral as well as by a belligerent Government, 
and is seriously considering instructing its officials ac- 
cordingly. 



THE DANGERS THAT THREATEN THE 
UNITED STATES 

50. Extract froui an Address of President Wilson. 
January 2Q, ipi6 ^ 

(House Document No. 803, 64th Congress, ist Session, p. 23) 

. . . The times are such, gentlemen, that it is necessary 
that we should take common counsel together regarding 
them. 

I suppose that this country has never found itself before 
in so singular a position. The present situation of the 
world would, only a twelvemonth ago, even after the Eu- 
ropean war had started, have seemed incredible, and yet 

1 The Cleveland preparedness speech is typical of the others de- 
livered at this time. For those delivered at New York. Pittsburgh, 
Milwaukee, Chicago, Des Moines, Topeka, Kansas City and St. 
Louis, see 64th Congress, ist session, House Document No. 803. 



i 



THE DANGERS THAT THREATEN 307 

now the things that no man anticipated have happened. 
The titanic struggle continues. The difficulties of the 
world's affairs accumulate. . . . 

What are the elements of the case? In the first place, 
and most obviously, two-thirds of the world are at war. It 
is not merely a European struggle; nations in the Orient 
have become involved, as well as nations in the West, and 
everywhere there seems to be creeping even upon the nations 
disengaged the spirit and the threat of war. All the world 
outside of America is on fire. 

Do you wonder that men's imaginations take color from 
the situation ? Do you wonder that there is a great reaction 
against war? Do you wonder that the passion for peace 
grows stronger as the spectacle grows more tremendous and 
more overwhelming? Do you wonder, on the other hand, 
that men's sympathies become deeply engaged on the one 
side or the other? For no small things are happening. 
This is a struggle which will determine the history of the 
world, I dare say, for more than a century to come. The 
world will never be the same again after this war is over. 
The change may be for weal or it may be for woe, but it will 
be fundamental and tremendous. 

And in the meantime we, the people of the United States, 
are the one great disengaged power, the one neutral power, 
finding it exceedingly difficult to be neutral, because, like 
men everywhere else, we are human ; we have the deep pas- 
sions of mankind in us ; we have sympathies that are as 
easily stirred as the sympathies of any other people; we 
have interests which we see being drawn slowly into the 
maelstrom of this tremendous upheaval. . . . 

. . . And all the while the nations themselves that were 
engaged seemed to be looking to us for some sort of ac- 
tion, not hostile in character but sympathetic in character. 
Hardly a single thing has occurred in Europe which has in 



3o8 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

any degree shocked the sensibiHties of mankind that the Gov- 
ernment of the United States has not been called upon by 
the one side or the other to protest and intervene with its 
moral influence, if not with its physical force. It is as if we 
were the great audience before whom this stupendous drama 
is being played out, and we are asked to comment upon the 
turns and crises of the plot. And not only are we the audi- 
ence, and challenged to be the umpire so far as the opinion 
of the world is concerned, but all the while our own life 
touches these matters at many points of vital contact. 

. . . And America has done more than care for her own 
people and think of her own fortunes in these great matters. 
She has said ever since the time of President Monroe that 
she was the champion of freedom and the separate sover- 
eignty of peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere. She 
is trustee for these ideals, and she is pledged, deeply and 
permanently pledged, to keep these momentous promises. 

She not only, therefore, must play her part in keeping 
this conflagration from spreading to the people of the 
United States, she must also keep this conflagration from 
spreading on this side of the sea. These are matters in 
which our very life and our whole pride are imbedded and 
rooted, and we can never draw back from them. . . . 

I merely want to leave you with this solemn impression, 
that I know that we are daily treading amid the most in- 
tricate dangers, and that the dangers that we are treading 
amongst are not of our making and are not under our con- 
trol, and that no man in the United States knows what a sin- 
gle week or a single day or a single hour may bring forth. 
These are solemn things to say to you but I would be un- 
worthy of my ofiice if I did not come out and tell you with 



ARMED MERCHANTMEN 3^9 

absolute frankness just exactly what I understand the 
situation to be. 

. . . You have laid upon me this double obligation : *' We 
are relying upon you, ^Ir. President, to keep us out of 
this war, but we are relying upon you, Mr. President, to 
keep the honor of the nation unstained.'* 

Do you not see that a time may come when it is impossi- 
ble to do both of these things? Do you not see that if I 
am to guard the honor of the Nation I am not protecting it 
against itself, for we are not going to do anything to stain 
the honor of our own country ; I am protecting it against 
things that I cannot control, the action of others. And 
where the action of others may bring us I cannot foretell. 
You may count upon my heart and resolution to keep you 
out of the war, but you must be ready if it is necessary that 
I should maintain your honor. 



ARMED MERCHANTMEN 

51. Extract from a Letter of President Wilson to 

Senator Stone, of Missouri. February 24, Ipi6 

(Congressional Record, LIII, 3318) 
. . . Our duty is clear. No nation, no group of nations, 
has the right, while war is in progress, to alter or disregard 
the principles which all nations have agreed upon in mitiga- 
tion of the horrors and sufferings of war; and if the clear 
rights of American citizens should very unhappily be 
abridged or denied by any such action, we should, it seems 
to me, have in honor no choice as to what our own course 
should be. 

For my own part, I can not consent to any abridgement 
of the rights of American citizens in any respect. The 



310 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

honor and self-respect of the Nation is involved. We 
covet peace, and shall preserve it at any cost but the loss 
of honor. To forbid our people to exercise their rights^ 
for fear we might be called upon to vindicate them would 
be a deep humiliation indeed. It would be an implicit, all 
but an explicit, acquiescence in the violation of the rights 
of mankind everywhere and of whatever nation or alle- 
giance. It would be a deliberate abdication of our hitheric 
proud position as spokesmen, even amid the turmoil of war. 
for the law and the right. It would make everything this 
Government has attempted and everything that it has ac- 
complished during this terrible struggle of nations mean- 
ingless and futile. 

It is important to reflect that if in this instance we al- 
lowed expediency to take the place of principle the door 
would inevitably be opened to still further concessions. 
Once accept a single abatement of right, and many other 
humiliations would certainly follow, and the whole fine 
fabric of international law might crumble under our hands 
piece by piece. What we are contending for in this mat- 
ter is of the very essence of the things that have made 
America a sovereign nation. She can not yield them with- 
out conceding her own impotency as a Nation and mak- 
ing virtual surrender of her independent position among the 
nations of the world. 



BASES OF AMERICAN POLICY 

52. Extract from an Address of President IVilson. 

February 26, 1()j6 

(Congressional Record, LIII. 3308) 

The point in national affairs, gentlemen, never lies along 
the lines of expediency. It always rests in the field of 



BASES OF AMERICAN POLICY 311 

principle. The United States was not founded upon any 
principle of expediency; it was founded upon a profound 
principle of human hberty and of humanity, and whenever 
it bases its policy upon any other foundations than those 
it builds on the sand and not upon the solid rock. ... It 
seems to me that if you do not think of the things that 
lie beyond and away from and disconnected from this 
scene in which we attempt to think and conclude, you will 
inevitably be led astray. I would a great deal rather know 
what they are talking about around quiet firesides all over 
this country than what they are talking about in the cloak- 
rooms of Congress. I would a great deal rather know what 
the men on the trains and by the wayside and in the shops 
and on the farms are thinking about and yearning for than 
hear any of the vociferous proclamations of policy which 
it is so easy to hear and so easy to read by picking up any 
scrap of printed paper. There is only one way to hear 
these things, and that is constantly to go back to the foun- 
tains of American action. Those fountains are not to be 
found in any recently discovered sources. 

America ought to keep out of this war. She ought to 
keep out of this war at the sacrifice of everything except 
this single thing upon which her character and history are 
founded, her sense of humanity and justice. If she sacri- 
fices that, she has ceased to be America; she has ceased 
to entertain and to love the traditions which have made us 
pround to be Americans ; and when we go about seeking 
safety at the expense of humanity, then I, for one, will be- 
lieve that I have always been mistaken in what I have con- 
ceived to be the spirit of American history. 

You never can tell your direction except by long measure- 
ments. You can not establish a line by two posts ; you have 
got to have three at least to know whether they are straight 



312 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

with anything, and the longer your line the more certain 
your measurement. There is only one way in which to 
determine how the future of the United States is going to 
be projected, and that is by looking back and seeing which 
way the lines ran which led up to the present moment of 
power and of opportunity. . . . Then we shall be certain 
what the lines of the future are, because we shall know we 
are steering by the lines of the past. We shall know that no 
temporary convenience, no temporary expediency will lead 
us either to be rash or to be cowardly. . . . Valor is self- 
respecting. \'alor is circumspect. \'alor strikes only 
when it is right to strike. Valor withholds itself from all 
small implications and entanglements and waits for the 
great opportunity when the sword will flash as if it carried 
the light of heaven upon its blade. 



EFFECTS OF RUMOUR OX MEXICAN POLICY 
53. Statement by Presiclent Wilson. March 2^, ipi6 

(Xciu York Times, March 26, 19 16) 
As has already been announced, the expedition into 
Mexico was ordered under an agreement with the de facto 
Government of Mexico for the single purpose of taking 
the bandit Villa, whose forces had actually invaded the 
territory of the United States, and is in no sense intended 
as an invasion of that republic or as an infringement of 
its sovereignty. 

I have, therefore, asked the several news services to be 
good enough to assist the Administration in keeping this 
view of the expedition constantly before both the people 
of this country and the distressed and sensitive people of 
Mexico, who are very susceptible, indeed, to impressions 
received from the American press not only, but also very 
^ ready to beheve that those impressions proceed from the 



EFFECTS OF RUMOUR 313 

views and objects of our Government itself. Such con- 
clusions, it must be said, are not unnatural, because the 
main, if not the only, source of information for the people 
on both sides of the border is the public press of the United 
States. 

In order to avoid the creation of erroneous and danger- 
ous impressions in this way I have called upon the several 
news agencies to use the utmost care not to give news stories 
regarding this expedition the color of war, to withhold 
stories of troop movements and military preparations which 
might be given that interpretation, and to refrain from 
publishing unverified rumors of unrest in Mexico. 

I feel that it is most desirable to impress upon both our 
own people and the people of Mexico the fact that the 
expedition is simply a necessary punitive measure, aimed 
solely at the elimination of the marauders who raided 
Columbus and who infest an unprotected district near the 
border, which they use as a base in making attacks upon the 
lives and property of our citizens within our own territory. 
It is the purpose of our commanders to co-operate in every 
possible way with the forces of General Carranza in re- 
moving this cause of irritation to both Governments, and 
retire from Mexican territory so soon as that object is ac- 
complished. 

It is my duty to warn the people of the United States 
that there are persons all along the border who are ac- 
tively engaged in originating and giving as wide currency 
as they can to rumors of the most sensational and dis- 
turbing sort, which are wholly unjustified by the facts. 
The object of this traffic in falsehood is obvious. It is to 
create intolerable friction between the Government of the 
United States and the de facto Government of Mexico for 
the purpose of bringing about intervention in the interest 
of certain American owners of Mexican properties. This 



314 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

object can not be attained so long as sane and honorable 
men are in control of this Government, but very serious 
conditions may be created, unnecessary bloodshed may re- 
sult, and the relations between the two republics may be 
very much embarrassed. 

The people of the United States should know the sinister 
and unscrupulous influences that are afoot, and should be 
on their guard against crediting any story coming from the 
border; and those who disseminate the news should make 
it a matter of patriotism and of conscience to test the 
source and authenticity of every report they receive from 
that quarter. 



STATUS OF ARMED MERCHANTAIEN 

54. Extract from a Mcuiorandiun by the Department of 
State. March 2^, ipi6 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. 3, p. 190) 

• •••••••• 

The status of an armed merchant vessel as a warship in 
neutral waters may be determined, in the absence of docu- 
mentary proof or conclusive evidence of previous aggres- 
sive conduct, by presumption derived from all the circum- 
stances of the case. 

The status of such vessel as a warship on the high seas 
must be determined only upon conclusive evidence of ag- 
gressive purpose, in the absence of which it is to be pre- 
sumed that the vessel has a private and peaceable char- 
acter, and it should be so treated by an enemy warship. 

In brief, a neutral Government may proceed upon the 
presumption that an armed merchant vessel of belligerent 
nationality is armed for aggression, while a belligerent 
should proceed on the presumption that the vessel is armed 



THE TRADITIONS OF AMERICA 315 

for protection. Both of these presumptions may be over- 
come by evidence — the first by secondary or collateral evi- 
dence, since the fact to be established is negative in char- 
acter; the second by primary and direct evidence, since the 
fact to be established is positive in character. 



THE TRADITIONS OF AMERICA 

55. Extract from an Address of President Wilson, 
April I'j, ipi6 

(New York Times, April 18, 1916) 

Tradition is a handsome thing in proportion as we live up 
to it. If we fall away from the tradition of the fathers, 
we have dishonored them. If we forget the tradition of 
the fathers, we have changed our character; we have lost 
an old impulse; we have become unconscious of the prin- 
ciples in which the life of the nation itself is rooted and 
grounded. . . . No other nation was ever born into the 
world with the purpose of serving the rest of the world 
just as much as it served itself. 

The purpose of this nation was in one sense to afford an 
asylum to men of all classes and kinds who desired to be 
free and to take part in the administration of a self-gov- 
erned Commonwealth. It was founded in order that men 
of every sort should have proof given that a Commonwealth 
of that sort was practicable, not only, but could win its 
standing of distinction and power among the nations of the 
world, and America will have forgotten her traditions 
whenever upon any occasion she fights merely for herself 
under such circumstances as will show that she has forgot- 
ten to fight for all mankind. And the only excuse that 
America can ever have for the assertion of her physical 



3i6 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

force is that she asserts it in behalf of the interest of 
humanity. 

What a splendid thing it is to have so singular a tradition 
— a tradition of unselhshness ! When America ceases to be 
unselfish, she will cease to be America. When she forgets 
the traditions of devotion to human rights in general, which 
gave spirit and impulse to her founders, she will have lost 
her title deeds to her own nationality. 



GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE: SUSSEX 
ULTIMATUM 

56. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Lansing 

to Ambassador Gerard. April iS, ipi6 

(Department of State, Di[^lomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. 3, p. 241) 

A careful, detailed, and scrupulously impartial investiga- 
tion ^ by naval and military officers of the United States 
has conclusively established the fact that the Sussex was 
torpedoed without warning or summons to surrender and 
that the torpedo by which she was struck was of German 
manufacture. . . . 

The Government of the United States, after having given 
careful consideration to the note of the Imperial Govern- 
ment of the loth of April, regrets to state that the impression 
made upon it by the statements, and proposals contained in 
that note is that the Imperial Government has failed to 

1 The United States asked on March 27, 1916, for information 
from the German Government concerning the sinking of the Sussex. 
The German reply, dated April 10, 1916, is published in Department 
of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War Series, No. 3, p. 
238. The Department of State, however, conducted an independent 
investigation and its evidence accompanied the note here published. 



SUSSEX ULTIMATUM 317 

appreciate the gravity of the situation which has resulted, 
not alone from the attack on the Sussex but from the 
whole method and character of submarine warfare as dis- 
closed by the unrestrained practice of the commanders of 
German undersea craft during the past twelvemonth and 
more in the indiscriminate destruction of merchant vessels 
of all sorts, nationaHties, and destinations. If the sinking 
of the Susses had been an isolated case the Government of 
the United States might find it possible to hope that the 
officer who was responsible for that act had willfully violated 
his orders or had been criminally negligent in taking none 
of the precautions they prescribed, and that the ends of 
justice might be satisfied by imposing upon him an ade- 
quate punishment, coupled with a formal disavowal of the 
act and payment of a suitable indemnity by the Imperial 
Government. But, though the attack upon the Sussex was 
manifestly indefensible and caused a loss of life so tragical 
as to make it stand forth as one of the most terrible examples 
of the inhumanity of submarine warfare as the commanders 
of German vessels are conducting it, it unhappily does not 
stand alone. 

On the contrary, the Government of the United States 
is forced by recent events to conclude that it is only one in- 
stance, even though one of the most extreme and most dis- 
tressing instances, of the deliberate method and spirit of 
indiscriminate destruction of merchant vessels of all sorts, 
nationalities, and destinations which have become more 
and more unmistakable as the activity of German undersea 
vessels of war has in recent months been quickened and 
extended. 

The Imperial Government will recall that when, in 
February, 191 5, it announced its intention of treating the 
waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland as embraced 
within the seat of war and of destroying all merchant ships 



3i8 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

owned by its enemies that might be found within that zone 
of danger, and warned all vessels, neutral as well as bellig- 
erent, to keep out of the waters thus proscribed or to en- 
ter them at their peril, the Government of the United States 
earnestly protested. It took the position that such a policy 
could not be pursued without constant gross and palpable 
violations of the accepted law of nations, particularly if 
submarine craft were to be employed as its instruments, 
inasmuch as the rules prescribed by that law, rules founded 
on the principles of humanity and established for the pro- 
tection of the lives of noncombatants at sea, could not in 
the nature of the case be observed by such vessels. It based 
its protest on the ground that persons of neutral nationality 
and vessels of neutral ownership would be exposed to ex- 
treme and intolerable risks ; and that no right to close any 
part of the high seas could lawfully be asserted by the Im- 
perial Government in the circumstances then existing. The 
law of nations in these matters, upon which the Government 
of the United States based that protest, is not of recent 
origin or founded upon merely arbitrary principles set up 
by convention. It is based, on the contrary, upon manifest 
principles of humanity and has long been established with 
the approval and by the express assent of all civilized na- 
tions. 

The Imperial Government, notwithstanding, persisted in 
carrying out the policy announced, expressing the hope that 
the dangers involved, at any rate to neutral vessels, would 
be reduced to a minimum by the instructions which it had 
issued to the commanders of its submarines, and assuring 
the Government of the United States that it would take 
every possible precaution both to respect the rights of neu- 
trals and to safeguard the lives of noncombatants. 

In pursuance of this policy of submarine warfare against 
the commerce of its adversaries, thus announced and thus 



SUSSEX ULTIMATUM 319 

entered upon in despite of the solemn protest of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, the commanders of the Im- 
perial Government's undersea vessels have carried on prac- 
tices of such ruthless destruction which have made it more 
and more evident as the months have gone by that the Im- 
perial Government has found it impracticable to put any- 
such restraints upon them as it had hoped and promised 
to put. Again and again the Imperial Government has 
given its solemn assurances to the Government of the United 
States that at least passenger ships would not be thus dealt 
with, and yet it has repeatedly permitted its undersea com- 
manders to disregard those assurances with entire impunity. 
As recently as February last it gave notice that it would re- 
gard all armed merchantmen owned by its enemies as part of 
the armed naval forces of its adversaries and deal with 
them as with men-of-war, thus, at least by implication, 
pledging itself to give warning to vessels which were not 
armed and to accord security of life to their passengers 
and crews ; but even this limitation their submarine com- 
manders have recklessly ignored. 

Vessels of neutral ownership, even vessels of neutral 
ownership bound from neutral port to neutral port, have 
been destroyed along with vessels of belligerent ownership 
in constantly increasing numbers. Sometimes the merchant- 
men attacked have been warned and summoned to sur- 
render before being fired on or torpedoed ; sometimes their 
passengers and crews have been vouchsafed the poor se- 
curity of being allowed to take to the ship's boats before the 
ship was sent to the bottom. But again and again no warn- 
ing has been given, no escape even to the ship's boats al- 
lowed to those on board. Great liners like the Lusitania 
and Arabic and mere passenger boats like the Sussex have 
been attacked without a moment's warning, often before 
they have even become aware that they were in the pres- 



320 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

ence of an armed ship of the enemy, and the Hves of non- 
combatants, passengers, and crew have been destroyed 
wholesale and in a manner which the Government of the 
United States can not but regard as wanton and without 
the slightest color of justification. No limit of any kind 
has in fact been set to their indiscriminate pursuit and 
destruction of merchantmen of all kinds and nationalities 
within the waters which the Imperial Government has chosen 
to designate as lying within the seat of war. The roll of 
Americans who have lost their lives upon ships thus at- 
tacked and destroyed has grown month by month until the 
ominous toll has mounted into the hundreds. 

The Government of the United States has been very pa- 
tient. At every stage of this distressing experience of 
tragedy after tragedy it has sought to be governed by the 
most thoughtful consideration of the extraordinary circum- 
stances of an unprecedented war and to be guided by sen- 
timents of very genuine friendship for the people and Gov- 
ernment of Germany. It has accepted the successive ex- 
planations and assurances of the Imperial Government as of 
course given in entire sincerity and good faith, and has 
hoped, even against hope, that it would prove to be possible 
for the Imperial Government so to order and control the 
acts of its naval commanders as to square its policy with 
the recognized principles of humanity as embodied in the 
law of nations. It has made every allowance for un- 
precedented conditions and has been willing to wait until 
the facts became unmistakable and were susceptible of only 
one interpretation. 

It now owes it to a just regard for its own rights to say 
to the Imperial Government that that time has come. It 
has become painfully evident to it that the position which 
it took at the very outset is inevitable, namely, the use 
of submarines for the destruction of an enemy's commerce, 



1 



SUSSEX ULTIMATUM 321 

is, of necessity, because of the very character of the vessels 
employed and the very methods of attack which their em- 
ployment of course involves, utterly incompatible with the 
principles of humanity, the long-established and incon- 
trovertible rights of neutrals, and the sacred immunities 
of noncombatants. 

If it is still the purpose of the Imperial Government 
to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against 
vessels of commerce by the use of submarines without re- 
gard to what the Government of the United States must 
consider the sacred and indisputable rules of international 
law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the 
Government of the United States is at last forced to the 
conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue. Un- 
less the Imperial Government should now immediately de- 
clare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of 
submarine warfare against passenger and freight-carrying 
vessels, the Government of the United States can have no 
choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German 
Empire altogether. This action the Government of the 
United States contemplates with the greatest reluctance but 
feels constrained to take in behalf of humanity and the 
rights of neutral nations. 



57. Extract from an Address of the President. 
April ig, ipi6 

(Congressional Record, LIII, 6422) 

• • • • • • • • * 

I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the Im- 
perial German Government ^ that if it is still its purpose to 
prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against ves- 
sels of commerce by the use of submarines, notwithstanding 

1 See infra, statement No. 56, p. 321. 



322 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

the now demonstrated impossibility of conducting that war- 
fare in accordance with what the Government of the 
United States must consider the sacred and indisputable 
rules of international law and the universally recognized 
dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States 
is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one 
course it can pursue ; and that unless the Imperial German 
Government should now immediately declare and effect an 
abandonment of its present methods of warfare against 
passenger and freight-carrying vessels this Government can 
have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the 
Government of the German Empire altogether. 

This decision I have arrived at with the keenest regret ; 
the possibility of the action contemplated I am sure all 
thoughtful Americans will look forward to with unaffected 
reluctance. But we cannot forget that we are in some sort 
and by the force of circumstances the responsible spokesman 
of the rights of humanity, and that we can not remain silent 
while those rights seem in process of being swept utterly 
away in the maelstrom of this terrible war. We owe it to 
a due regard of our own rights as a nation, to our sense of 
duty as a representative of the rights of neutrals the world 
over, and to a just conception of the rights of mankind to 
take this stand now with the utmost solemnity and firmness. 

58. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Lansing 
to Ambassador Gerard. May 8, igi6 

(Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, European War 

Series, No. 3, p. 306) 
■ •••..... 

. . . Accepting the Imperial Government's declaration ^ 

1 TItc German reply to the Sussex ultimatum, dated May 4, 1916, 
is published in Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence, 
European War Series, No. 3, p. 302. 



SUSSEX ULTIMATUM 323 

of its abandonment of the policy which has so seriously men- 
aced the good relations between the two countries, the Gov- 
ernment of the United States will rely upon a scrupulous 
execution henceforth of the now altered policy of the Im- 
perial Government, such as will remove the principal danger 
to an interruption of the good relations existing between the 
United States and Germany. 

The Government of the United States feels it necessary 
to state that it takes it for granted that the Imperial Ger- 
man Government does not intend to imply that the main- 
tenance of its newly announced policy is in any way con- 
tingent upon the course or result of diplomatic negotiations 
between the Government of the United States and any other 
belligerent Government, notwithstanding the fact that cer- 
tain passages in the Imperial Government's note of the 4th 
instant might appear to be susceptible of that construction. 
In order, however, to avoid any possible misunderstand- 
ing, the Government of the United States notifies the Im- 
perial Government that it can not for a moment entertain, 
nuich less discuss, a suggestion that respect by German naval 
authorities for the rights of citizens of the United States 
upon the high seas should in any way or in the slightest 
degree be made contingent upon the conduct of any other 
Government affecting the rights of neutrals and noncom- 
batants. Responsibility in such matters is single, not joint; 
absolute, not relative. 



324 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

EFFECT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS UPON 
AMERICAN POLICY 

59. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

May ij, ipi6 

(Congressional Record, hill, Appendix, 962) 

• •••••••• 

... In domestic matters I think I can in most cases come 
pretty near a guess where the thought of America is going, 
but in foreign affairs the chief element is where action is 
going on in other quarters of the world and not where 
thought is going in the United States. . . . 

Thoughts may be bandits. Thoughts may be raiders. 
Thoughts may be invaders. Thoughts may be disturbers 
of international peace ; and when you reflect upon the 
importance of this country keeping out of the present war, 
you will know what tremendous elements we are all dealing 
with.^ We are all in the same boat. If somebody does not 
keep the processes of peace going, if somebody does not 
keep their passions disengaged, by what impartial judgment 
and suggestion is the world to be aided to a solution when 
the whole thing is over? If you are in a conference in 
which you know nobody is disinterested, how are you going 
to make a plan? I tell you this, gentlemen, the only thing 
that saves the world is the little handful of disinterested 
men that are in it. 



1 The reference is to the European War, but it also indicates 
the President's views on rumours regarding Mexico. See infra. 
Statement No. 53, p. 312. 



A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 325 

A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

60. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

May 2j, 1^16 

(Congressional Record, LIII, 8854) 

This great war that broke so suddenly upon the world 
two years ago, and which has swept within its flame so 
great a part of the civilized world, has affected us very 
profoundly, and we are not only at liberty, it is perhaps 
our duty, to speak very frankly of it and of the great in- 
terests of civilization which it affects. 

With its causes and its objects we are not concerned. 
The obscure fountains from which its stupendous flood 
has burst forth we are not interested to search for or ex- 
plore. But so great a flood, spread far and wide to every 
quarter of the globe, has of necessity engulfed many a fair 
province of right that lies very near to us. 

Our own rights as a nation, the liberties, the privileges, 
and the property of our people have been profoundly af- 
fected. We are not mere disconnected lookers-on. 

The longer the war lasts the more deeply do we become 
concerned that it should be brought to an end and the world 
be permitted to resume its normal life and course again. 
And when it does come to an end we shall be as much con- 
cerned as the nations at war to see peace assume an aspect 
of permanence, give promise of days from which the anxiety 
of uncertainty shall be lifted, bring some assurance that 
peace and war shall always hereafter be reckoned part of 
the common interest of mankind. 

We are participants, whether we would or not, in the 
life of the world. The interests of all nations are our own 



326 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

also. We are partners with the rest. What affects man- 
kind is inevitably our affair as well as the aft'air of the 
nations of Europe and of Asia. 

One observation on the causes of the present war we I 
are at liberty to make, and to make it may throw some 
light forward upon the future as well as backward upom! 
the past. It is plain that this war could have come only 
at it did, suddenly and out of secret counsels, without" 
warning to the world, without discussion, without any of 
the deliberate movements of counsel with which it would 
seem natural to approach so stupendous a contest. 

It is probable that if it had been foreseen just what 
would happen, just what alliances would be formed, just 
what forces arrayed against one another, those who brought 
the great contest on would have been glad to substitute 
conference for force. 

If we ourselves had been afforded some opportunity to ap- 
prise the belligerents of the attitude which it would be our 
duty to take, of the policies and practices against which we 
would feel bound to use all our moral and economic strength, 
and in certain circumstances even our physical strength also, 
our own contribution to the counsel which might have 
averted the struggle would have been considered worth 
weighing and regarding. 

And the lesson which the shock of being taken by sur- 
prise in a matter so deeply vital to all the nations of the 
world has made poignantly clear is, that the peace of the 
world must henceforth depend upon a new and more whole- 
some diplomacy. 

Only when the great nations of the world have reached 
some sort of agreement as to what they hold to be funda- 
mental to their common interest, and as to some feasible 
method of acting in concert w'hen any nation or group of 
nations seeks to disturb those fundamental things, can we 



A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 327 

feel that civilization is at last in a way of justifying its 
existence and claiming to be finally established. 

It is clear that nations must in the future be governed 
by the same high code of honor that we demand of in- 
dividuals. 

We must, indeed, in the very same breath with which we 
avow this conviction admit that we have ourselves upon 
occasion in the past been offenders against the law of 
diplomacy which we thus forecast ; but our conviction is 
not the less clear, but rather the more clear on that ac- 
count. 

If this war has accomplished nothing else for the benefit 
of the world, it has at least disclosed a great moral neces- 
sity and set forward the thinking of the statesmen of the 
world by a whole age. 

Repeated utterances of the leading statesmen of most of 
the great nations now engaged in war have made it plain 
that their thought has come to this, that the principle of 
public right must henceforth take precedence over the 
individua'. interests of particular nations, and that the na- 
tions of the world must in some way band themselves to- 
gether to see that that right prevails as against any sort of 
selfish aggression ; that henceforth alliance must not be 
set up against alliance, understanding against understand- 
ing, but that there must be a common agreement for a com- 
mon object, and that at the heart of that common object 
must lie the inviolable rights of peoples and of mankind. 

The nations of the world have become each other's neigh- 
bors. It is to their interest that they should understand 
each other. In order that they may understand each other, 
it is imperative that they should agree to cooperate in a 
common cause, and that they should so act that the guid- 
ing principle of that common cause shall be even-handed 
and impartial justice. 



328 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

This is undoubtedly the thought of America. This is 
what we ourselves will say when there comes proper occa- 
sion to say it. In the dealings of nations with one another 
arbitrary force must be rejected, and we must move forward 
to the thought of the modern world, the thought of which 
peace is the very atmosphere. That thought constitutes a 
chief part of the passionate conviction of America. 

We believe these fundamental things : First, that every 
people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which 
they shall live. Like other nations, we have ourselves 
no doubt once and again offended against that principle 
when for a little while controlled by selfish passion, as our 
franker historians have been honorable enough to admit ; 
but it has become more and more our rule of life and ac- 
tion. Second, that the small states of the world have a 
right to enjoy the same respect for their sovereignty and 
for their territorial integrity that great and powerful na- 
tions expect and insist upon. And, third, that the world 
has a right to be free from every disturbance of its peace 
that has its origin in aggression and disregard of the rights 
of peoples and nations. 

So sincerely do we believe in these things that I am sure 
that I speak the mind and wish of the people of America 
when I say that the United States is willing to become 
a partner in any feasible association of nations formed in 
order to realize these objects and make them secure against 
violation. 

There is nothing that the United States wants for itself 
that any other nation has. We are willing, on the con- 
trary, to limit ourselves along with them to a prescribed 
course of duty and respect for the rights of others which 
will check any selfish passion of our own, as it will check 
any aggressive impulses of theirs. 

If it should ever be our privilege to suggest or initiate a 



PURPOSES OF THE UNITED STATES 329 

movement for peace among the nations now at war, I am 
sure that the people of the United States would wish their 
Government to move along these lines : 

First, such a settlement with regard to their own imme- 
diate interests as the belligerents may agree upon. We 
have nothing material of any kind to ask for ourselves, and 
are quite aware that we are in no sense or degree parties to 
the present quarrel. Our interest is only in peace and its 
future guarantees. 

Second, an universal association of the nations to main- 
tain the inviolate security of the highway of the seas for 
the common and unhindered use of all the nations of the 
world, and to prevent any war begun either contrary to 
treaty covenants or without warning and full submission of 
the causes to the opinion of the world — a virtual guaran- 
tee of territorial integrity and political independence. 



PURPOSES OF THE UNITED STATES 

61. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

May 30, ipi6 
(Congressional Record, LIU, 9029) 

But what are the purposes of America? Do you not see 
that there is another significance in the fact that we are 
made up out of all the peoples of the world? The signifi- 
cance of that fact is that we are not going to devote our 
nationality to the same mistaken aggressive purposes that 
some other nationalities have been devoted to ; that because 
we are made up, and consciously made up, out of all the 
great family of mankind, we are champions of the rights 
of mankind. 

We are not only ready to cooperate, but we are ready 



330 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

to fight against any aggression, whether from without or: 
from within. But we must guard ourselves against the 
sort of aggression which would be unworthy of America. 
We are ready to fight for our rights when those rights are 
coincident with the rights of man and humanity. It was 
to set those rights up, to vindicate them, to offer a home 
to every man who believed in them, that America was cre- 
ated and her Government set up. We have kept our doors 
open because we did not think we in conscience could close 
them against men who wanted to join their force with ours 
in vindicating the claim of mankind to liberty and justice. 

America does not want any additional territory. She 
does not want any selfish advantage over any other nation in 
the world, but she does wish every nation in the world to 
understand what she stands for and to respect what she 
stands for; and I can not conceive of any men of any blood 
or origin failing to feel an enthusiasm for the things that 
America stands for, or failing to see that they are indefi- 
nitely elevated above any purpose of aggression or selfish 
advantage. 

I said the other evening in another place ^ that one of the 
principles which America held dear was that small and weak 
States had as much right to their sovereignty and inde- 
pendence as large and strong States. She believes that be- 
cause strength and weakness have nothing to do with her 
principles. Her principles are for the rights and liberties 
of mankind, and this is the haven which we have ofifered to 
those who believe that sublime and sacred creed of hu- 
manity. 

And I also said that I believed that the people of the 
United States were ready to become partners in any al- 
liance of the nations that would guarantee public right 
above selfish aggression. Some of the public prints have 

1 Infra, Statement No. 60, p. 325. 



PURPOSES OF THE UNITED STATES 331 

reminded me, as if I needed to be reminded, of what Gen. 
Washington warned us against. He warned us against 
entanghng aUiances. I shall never myself consent to an 
entangling alliance, but I would gladly assent to a disen- 
tangling alliance — an alliance which would disentangle 
the peoples of the world from those combinations in which 
they seek their own separate and private interests and unite 
the people of the world to preserve the peace of the world 
upon a basis of common right and justice. There is liberty 
there, not limitation. There is freedom, not entanglement. 
There is the achievement of the highest things for which 
the United States has declared its principle. 



62. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
June /J, igi6 

(New York Times, June 14, 1916) 

... In your case there are many extraordinary possibili- 
ties, because, gentlemen, no man can certainly tell you what 
the immediate future is going to be either in the history of 
this country or in the history of the world. It is not by 
accident that the present great war came in Europe. Every 
element was there, and the contest had to come sooner or 
later, and it is not going to be by accident that the results 
are worked out, but by purpose — by the purpose of the 
men who are strong enough to have guiding minds and 
indomitable wills when the time for decision and settlement 
comes. And the part that the United States is to play 
has this distinction in it, that it is to be in any event a dis- 
interested part. There is nothing that the United States 
wants that it has to get by war, but there are a great many 
things that the United States has to do. It has to see 



332 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

that its life is not interfered with by anybody else who 
wants something. 

These are days when we are making preparation, when 
the thing most commonly discussed around every sort of 
table, in every sort of circle, in the shops and in the streets, 
is preparedness, and undoubtedly, gentlemen, that is the 
present imperative duty of America, to be prepared. But we 
ought to know what we are preparing for. I remember 
hearing a wise man say once that the old maxim that 
" everything comes to the man who waits " is all very well 
provided he knows what he is waiting for ; and prepared- 
ness might be a very hazardous thing if we did not know 
what we wanted to do with the force that we mean to ac- 
cumulate and to get into fighting shape. 

America, fortunately, does know what she wants to do 
with her force, America came into existence for a par- 
ticular reason. When you look about upon those beautiful 
hills, and up this stately stream, and then let your imagina- 
tion run over the whole body of this great country from 
which you youngsters are drawn, far and wide, you re- 
member that while it had aboriginal inhabitants, while there 
were people living here, there was no civilization which we 
displaced. It was as if in the Province of God a con- 
tinent had been kept unused and waiting for a peaceful 
people who loved liberty and the rights of men more than 
they loved anything else, to come and set up an unselfish 
commonwealth. It is a very extraordinary thing. You are 
so familiar with American history . . . that it does not 
seem strange to you, but it is a very strange history. There 
is none other like it in the whole annals of mankind — of 
men gathering out of every civilized nation of the world on 
an unused continent and building up a polity exactly to suit 
themselves, not under the domination of any ruling dynasty 
or of the ambitions of any royal family ; doing what they 



PURPOSES OF THE UNITED STATES 333 

pleased with their own Hfe on a free space of land which 
God had made rich with every resource which was necessary 
for the civilization they meant to build up. There is nothing 
Hke it. 

Now, what we are preparing to do is to see that nobody 
mars that and that, being safe itself against interference 
from the outside, all of its force is going to be behind 
its moral idea, and mankind is going to know that when 
America speaks she means what she says. . . . 

You have read a great deal in the books about the pride 
of the old Roman citizen, who always felt like drawing 
himself to his full height when he said, " I am a Roman," but 
as compared with the pride that must have risen to his heart, 
our pride has a new distinction, not the distinction of the 
mere imperial power of a great empire, not the distinction of 
being the masters of the world, but the distinction of carry- 
ing certain lights for the world that the world has never so 
distinctly seen before, certain guiding lights of liberty and 
principle and justice. We have drawn our people, as you 
know, from all parts of the world, and we have been some- 
what disturbed recently, gentlemen, because some of those 
— though I believe a very small number — whom we have 
drawn into our citizenship have not taken into their hearts 
the spirit of America and have loved other countries more 
than they loved the country of their adoption; and we have 
talked a great deal about Americanism. It ought to be a 
matter of pride with us to know what Americanism really 
consists in. 

Americanism consists in utterly believing in the principles 
of America and putting them first as above anything that 
might by chance come into competition with it. And I, for 
my part, believe that the American test is a spiritual test. If 
a man has to make excuses for what he has done as an 
American, I doubt his Americanism. He ought to know 



334 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

at every step of his action that the motiv^e that Hes behind 
what he does is a motive which no American need be 
ashamed of for a moment. Now, we ought to put this test 
to every man we know. We ought to let it be known that 
nobody who does not put America first can consort with us. 

But we ought to set them the example. We ought to 
set them the example by thinking American thoughts, by 
entertaining American purposes, and those thoughts and 
purposes will stand the test of example anywhere in the 
world, for they are intended for the betterment of mankind. 

. . . You have heard of the Monroe Doctrine, gentlemen. 
You know that we are already spiritual partners with both 
continents of this hemisphere and that America means some- 
thing which is bigger even than the United States, and that 
we stand here with the glorious power of this country, ready 
to swing it out into the field of action whenever liberty and 
independence and political integrity are threatened anywhere 
in the Western Hemisphere. And we are ready — nobody 
has authorized me to say this, but I am sure of it — we are 
ready to join with the other nations of the world in seeing 
that the kind of justice prevails anywhere that we believe in. 

... I am an American, but I do not believe that any of us 
loves a blustering nationality, a nationality with a chip on 
its shoulder, a nationality with its elbows out and its swag- 
ger on. 

We love that quiet, self-respecting, unconquerable spirit 
which does not strike until it is necessary to strike, and then 
strikes to conquer. . . . 

So my conception of America is a conception of infinite 
dignity, along with quiet, unquestionable power. I ask you, 
gentlemen, to join with me in that conception, and let us 
all in our several spheres be soldiers together to realize it. 



JUSTICE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 335 

JUSTICE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

63. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
June 29, 191 6 

(From the official printed text; for the entire address see Congres- 
sional Record, LIII, Appendix, 1302) 

In the first place, I believe, and I summon you to show 
your belief in the same thing, that it is the duty of every 
American in everything that he does, in his business and 
out of it, to think first, not of himself or of any interest 
which he may be called upon to sacrifice, but of the country 
which we serve. '' America first " means nothing until you 
translate it into what you do. So I believe most pro- 
foundly in the duty of every American to exalt the national 
consciousness by purifying his own motives and exhibiting 
his own devotion. 

I believe, in the second place, that America, the country 
that we put first in our thoughts, should be ready in every 
point of policy and of action to vindicate at whatever cost 
the principles of liberty, of justice, and of humanity to which 
we have been devoted from the first. You cheer the senti- 
ment, but do you realize what it means? It means that you 
have not only got to be just to your fellowmen but that as a 
nation you have got to be just to other nations. It comes 
high. It is not an easy thing to do. It is easy to think first 
of the material interest of America, but it is not easy to 
think first of what America, if she loves justice, ought to do 
in the field of international affairs. I believe that at what- 
ever cost America should be just to other peoples and treat 
other peoples as she demands that they should treat her. 
She has a right to demand that they treat her with justice 
and respect, and she has a right to insist that they treat her 
in that fashion, but she can not with dignity or self-respect 



336 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

insist upon that unless she is willing to act in the same 
fashion toward them. That I am ready to fight for at any 
cost to myself. 

Then, in the third place, touching ourselves more inti- 
mately, my fellow-citizens, this is what I believe: If I 
understand the life of America, the central principle of it is 
this, that no small body of persons, no matter how influ- 
ential, shall be trusted to determine the policy and develop- 
ment of America. . . . 

. . . The theory of government which I decline to sub- 
scribe to is that the vitality of the nation comes out of clos- 
eted councils where a few men determine the policy of the 
country. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF THE OPINION OF 

MANKIND 

64. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

June so, 1916 
{Congressional Record, LIII, Appendix, 1395) 

Of course it is our duty to prepare this Nation to take 
care of its honor and of its institutions. Why debate any 
part of that, except the detail, except the plan itself, which is 
always debatable? 

Of course it is the duty of the Government, which it will 
never overlook, to defend the territory and people of this 
country. It goes without saying that it is the duty of the 
administration to have constantly in mind with the utmost 
sensitiveness every point of national honor. 

But, gentlemen, after you have said and accepted these 
obvious things your program of action is still to be formed. 
When will you act and how will you act? 



THE OPINION OF MANKIND 337 

The easiest thing is to strike. The brutal thing is the 
impulsive thing. No man has to think before he takes 
aggressive action; but before a man really conserves the 
honor by realizing the ideals of the Nation he has to think 
exactly what he will do and how he will do it. 

Do you think the glory of America would be enhanced by 
a war of conquest in Mexico? Do you think that any act 
of violence by a powerful nation like this against a weak 
and destructive neighbor would reflect distinction upon the 
annals of the United States? 

Do you think that it is our duty to carry self-defense to 
a point of dictation into the affairs of another people? The 
ideals of America are written plain upon every page of 
American history. 

We have the evidence of a very competent witness, 
namely, the first Napoleon, who said that as he looked back 
in the last days of his life upon so much as he knew of 
human history he had to record the judgment that force had 
never accomplished anything that was permanent. 

Force will not accomplish anything that is permanent, I 
venture to say, in the great struggle which is going on on 
the other side of the sea. The permanent things will be 
accomplished afterwards, when the opinion of mankind is 
brought to bear upon the issues, and the only thing that will 
hold the world steady is this same silent, insistent, all- 
powerful opinion of mankind. 

Force can sometimes hold things steady until opinion has 
time to form, but no force that was ever exerted, except 
in response to that opinion, was ever a conquering and pre- 
dominant force. 

I think the sentence in American history that I myself am 
proudest of is that in the introductory sentences of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, where the writers say that a due 



338 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

respect for the opinion of mankind demands that they state 
the reasons for what they are about to do. 

I venture to say that a decent respect for the opinions of 
mankind demanded that those who started the present 
European war should have stated their reasons ; but they 
did not pay any heed to the opinion of mankind, and the 
reckoning will come when the settlement comes. 



THE PURPOSE OF THE UNITED STATES 
65. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

July 4, 1^16 

{Congressional Record, LIII, Appendix, 1395) 

. . . America did not come into existence to make one 
more great nation in the family of nations, to show its 
strength and to exercise its mastery. America opened her 
doors to everybody who wanted to be free and to have the 
same opportunity that everybody else had to make the most 
of his faculties and his opportunities, and America will re- 
tain its greatness only so long as it retains and seeks to 
realize those ideals. No man ought to suffer injustice in 
America. No man ought in America to fail to see the dic- 
tates of humanity. 



SERVICE OF AMERICA IN FOREIGN TRADE 
66. Extract from on Address of President Wilson. 

July 10, ipi6 

{Congressional Record, LIII, Appendix, 1480) 

These are days of incalculable change, my fellow citizens. 
It is impossible for anybody to predict anything that is 



AMERICA IN FOREIGN TRADE 339 

certain in detail with regard to the future either of this 
country or of the world in the large movements of business ; 
but one thing is perfectly clear, and that is that the United 
States will play a new part, and that it will be a part of 
unprecedented opportunity and of greatly increased respon- 
sibilities. The United States has had a very singular history 
in respect of its business relationships with the rest of the 
world. I have always believed — and I think you have al- 
ways believed — that there is more business genius in the 
United States than anywhere else in the world, and yet 
America has apparently been afraid of touching too inti- 
mately the great processes of international exchange. 
America of all countries in the world has been timid ; has not 
until recently — has not until within the last two or three 
years — provided itself with the fundamental instrumen- 
talities for playing a large part in the trade of the world. 
America, which ought to have had the broadest vision of 
any nation, has raised up an extraordinary number of 
provincial thinkers, men who thought provincially about 
business, men who thought that the United States was not 
ready to take her competitive part in the struggle for peace- 
ful conquest of the world. For anybody who reflects philo- 
sophically upon the history of this country, that is the most 
amazing fact about it. 

But the time for provincial thinkers has gone by. We 
must play a great part in the world whether we choose it 
or not. Do you know the significance of this single fact 
that within the last year or two we have, speaking in large 
terms, ceased to be a debtor Nation and become a creditor 
Nation; that we have more of the surplus gold of the 
world than we ever had before, and that our business here- 
after is to be to lend and to help and to promote the great 
peaceful enterprises of the world? We have got to finance 
the world in some important degree, and those who finance 



340 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

the world must understand it and rule it with their spirits 
and with their minds. We can not cabin and confine our- 
selves any longer, and so I said that I came here to con- 
gratulate you upon the great role that lies ahead of you to 
play. This is a salesmanship congress, and hereafter sales- 
manship will have to be closely related in its outlook and 
scope to statesmanship, to international statesmanship. It 
will have to be touched with an intimate comprehension of 
the conditions of business and enterprise throughout the 
round globe, because America will have to place her goods 
by running her intelHgence ahead of her goods. No amount 
of mere push, no amount of mere hustHng, or, to speak in 
the western language, no amount of mere rustling, no 
amount of mere active enterprise will suffice. 

There have been two ways of doing business in the world 
outside of the lands in which the great manufactures have 
been made. One has been to try to force the tastes of the 
manufacturing country on the country in which the markets 
were being sought, and the other way has been to study the 
tastes and needs of the countries where the markets were 
being sought and suit your goods to those tastes and needs, 
and the latter method has beaten the former method. . . . 
That is statesmanship because that is relating your in- 
ternational activities to the conditions which exist in other 
countries. 

. . . You can not force yourself upon anybody who is not 
obliged to take you. The only way in which you can be sure 
of being accepted is by being sure that you have got some- 
thing to oflfer that is worth taking, and the only way you can 
be sure of that is by being sure that you wish to adapt it to 
the use and the service of the people to whom you are trying 
to sell. 

I was trying to expound in another place the other day 



AMERICA IN FOREIGN TRADE 34i 

the long way and the short way to get together. The long 
way is to fight. I hear some gentlemen say that they want 
to help Mexico, and the way they propose to help her is to 
overwhelm her with force. That is the long way to help 
Mexico, as well as the wrong way, because after the fight- 
ing you have a nation full of justified suspicion and ani- 
mated by well-founded hostility and hatred, and then will 
you help them? Then will you establish cordial business 
relatk)nships with them ? Then will you go in as neighbors 
and enjoy their confidence? On the contrary, you will have 
shut every door as if it were of steel against you. What 
makes Mexico suspicious of us is that she does not believe 
as yet that we want to serve her. She believes that we want 
to possess her, and she has justification for the belief in 
the way in which some of our fellow citizens have tried to 
exploit her privileges and possessions. For my part, I will 
not serve the ambitions of these gentlemen, but I will try to 
serve all America, so far as intercourse with Mexico is con- 
cerned, by trying to serve Mexico herself. There are some 
things that are not debatable. Of course, we have to de- 
fend our border. That goes without saying. Of course, 
we must make good our own sovereignty, but we must 
respect the sovereignty of Mexico. I am one of those — 
I have sometimes suspected that there were not many of 
them — who believe, absolutely believe, the Virginia Bill of 
Rights, which was the model of the old Bill of Rights, which 
says that a people has a right to do anything they please 
with their own country and their own government. I am 
old-fashioned enough to believe that, and I am going to 
stand by the belief. . . . 



342 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

REVIEW OF FOUR YEARS OF FOREIGN POLICY 

67. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
September 2, igi6 

(Congressional Record, LIII, Appendix, 1985) 
• •••••••• 

In foreign affairs we have been guided by principles 
clearly conceived and consistently lived up to. Perhaps 
they have not been fully comprehended because they have 
hitherto governed international affairs only in theory, not in 
practice. They are simple, obvious, easily stated, and fun- 
damental to American ideals. 

We have been neutral not only because it was the fixed 
and traditional policy of the United States to stand aloof 
from the politics of Europe and because we had had no 
part either of action or of policy in the influences which 
brought on the present war, but also because it was mani- 
festly our duty to prevent, if it were possible, the indefinite 
extension of the fires of heat and desolation kindled by 
that terrible conflict and seek to serve mankind by reserving 
our strength and our resources for the anxious and difficult 
days of restoration and healing which must follow, when 
peace will have to build its house anew. 

The rights of our own citizens of course became involved ; 
that was inevitable. Where they did this was our guiding 
principle : That property rights can be vindicated by claims 
for damages, and no modern nation can decline to arbitrate 
such claims ; but the fundamental rights of humanity cannot 
be. The loss of life is irreparable. Neither can direct vio- 
lations of a nation's sovereignty await vindication in suits 
for damages. The nation that violates these essential rights 
must expect to be checked and called to account by direct 



REVIEW OF FOUR YEARS 343 

challenge and resistance. It at once makes the quarrel in 
part our own. These are plain principles and we have never 
lost sight of them or departed from them, whatever the 
stress or the perplexity of circumstance or the provocation 
to hasty resentment. The record is clear and consistent 
throughout and stands distinct and definite for any one to 
judge who wishes to know the truth about it. 

The seas were not broad enough to keep the infection of 
the conflict out of our own politics. The passions and in- 
trigues of certain active groups and combinations of men 
amongst us who were born under foreign flags injected the 
poison of disloyalty into our own most critical affairs, laid 
violent hands upon many of our industries, and subjected 
us to the shame of divisions of sentiment and purpose in 
which America was contemned and forgotten. It is part 
of the business of this year of reckoning and settlement to 
speak plainly and act with unmistakable purpose in rebuke 
of these things, in order that they may be forever hereafter 
impossible. I am the candidate of a party, but I am above 
all things else an American citizen. I neither seek the fa- 
vour nor fear the displeasure of that small alien element 
amongst us which puts loyalty to any foreign power before 
loyalty to the United States. 

While Europe was at war our own continent, one of our 
own neighbours, was shaken by revolution. In that matter, 
too, principle was plain and it was imperative that we should 
live up to it if we were to deserve the trust of any real 
partisan of the right as free men see it. We have professed 
to believe, and we do believe, that the people of small and 
weak states have the right to expect to be dealt with exactly 
as the people of big and powerful states would be. We 
have acted upon that principle in dealing with the people of 
Mexico. 

Our recent pursuit of bandits into Mexican territory was 



344 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

no violation of that principle. We ventured to enter Mexi«- 
can territory only because there were no military forces in 
Mexico that could protect our border from hostile attack 
and our own people from violence, and we have committed 
there no single act of hostility or interference even with the 
sovereign authority of the Republic of Mexico herself. It 
was a plain case of the violation of our own sovereignty 
which could not wait to be vindicated by damages and for 
which there was no other remedy. The authorities of Mex- 
ico were powerless to prevent it. 

Many serious wrongs against the property, many irrep- 
arable wrongs against the persons, of Americans have been 
committed within the territory of Mexico herself during this 
confused revolution, wrongs which could not be effectually 
checked so long as there was no constituted power in Mexico 
which was in a position to check them. We could not act 
directly in that matter ourselves without denying Mexicans 
the right to any revolution at all which disturbed us and 
making the emancipation of her own people await our own 
interest and convenience. 

For it is their emancipation that they are seeking, — 
blindly, it may be, and as yet ineffectually, but with profound 
and passionate purpose and within their unquestionable 
right, apply what true American principle you will, — any 
principle that an American would publicly avow. The peo- 
ple of Mexico have not been suffered to own their own 
country or direct their own institutions. Outsiders, men 
out of other nations and with interests too often alien to 
their own, have dictated what their privileges and opportuni- 
ties should be and who should control their land, their lives, 
and their resources, — some of them Americans, pressing for 
things they could never have got in their own country. The 
Mexican people are entitled to attempt their liberty from 



REVIEW OF FOUR YEARS 345 

such influences ; and so long as I have anything to do with 
the action of our great Government I shall do everything 
in my power to prevent any one standing in their way. I 
know that this is hard for some persons to understand ; but 
it is not hard for the plain people of the United States to 
understand. It is hard doctrine only for those who wish to 
get something for themselves out of Mexico. There are 
men, and noble women, too, not a few, of our own people, 
thank God ! whose fortunes are invested in great properties 
in Mexico who yet see the case with true vision and assess 
its issues with true American feeling. The rest can be left 
for the present out of the reckoning until this enslaved 
people has had its day of struggle towards the light. I have 
heard no one who was free from such influences propose 
interference by the United States with the internal affairs 
of Mexico. Certainly no friend of the Mexican people has 
proposed it. 

The people of the United States are capable of great sym- 
pathies and a noble pity in dealing with problems of this 
kind. As their spokesman and representative, I have tried 
to act in the spirit they would wish me show. The people 
of Mexico are striving for the rights that are fundamental 
to life and happiness, — fifteen million oppressed men, over- 
burdened women, and pitiful children in virtual bondage in 
their own home of fertile lands and inexhaustible treasure ! 
Some of the leaders of the revolution may often have been 
mistaken and violent and selfish, but the revolution itself 
was inevitable and is right. The unspeakable Huerta be- 
trayed the very comrades he served, traitorously overthrew 
the government of which he was a trusted part, impudently 
spoke for the very forces that had driven his people to the 
rebellion with which he had pretended to sympathize. The 
men who overcame him and drove him out represent at least 



346 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

the fierce passion of reconstruction which lies at the very 
heart of hberty ; and so long as they represent, however 
imperfectly, such a struggle for deliverance, I am ready to 
serve their ends when I can. So long as the power of recog- 
nition rests with me the Government of the United States 
will refuse to extend the hand of welcome to any one who 
obtains power in a sister republic by treachery and violence. 
No permanency can be given the affairs of any republic by 
a title based upon intrigue and assassination. I declared 
that to be the policy of this Administration within three 
weeks after I assumed the presidency. I here again vow it. 
I am more interested in the fortunes of oppressed men and 
pitiful women and children than in any property rights what- 
ever. Mistakes I have no doubt made in this perplexing 
business, but not in purpose or object. 

More is involved than the immediate destinies of Mexico 
and the relations of the United States with a distressed and 
distracted people. All America looks on. Test is now be- 
ing made of us whether we be sincere lovers of popular 
liberty or not and are indeed to be trusted to respect national 
sovereignty among our weaker neighbors. We have un- 
dertaken these many years to play big brother to the repub- 
lics of this hemisphere. This is the day of our test whether 
we mean, or have ever meant, to play that part for our own 
benefit wholly or also for theirs. Upon the outcome of that 
test (its outcome in their minds, not in ours) depends every 
relationship of the United States with Latin America, 
whether in politics or in commerce and enterprise. These 
are great issues and lie at the heart of the gravest tasks 
of the future, tasks both economic and political and very 
intimately inwrought with many of the most vital of the 
new issues of the politics of the world. The republics of 
America have in the last three years been drawing together 
in a new spirit of accommodation, mutual understanding, 



REVIEW OF FOUR YEARS 347 

and cordial cooperation. Much of the poHtics of the world 
in the years to come will depend upon their relationships 
with one another. It is a barren and provincial statesman- 
ship that loses sight of such things ! 

The future, the immediate future, will bring us squarely 
face to face with many great and exacting problems which 
will search us through and through whether we be able and 
ready to play the part in the world that we mean to play. 
It will not bring us into their presence slowly, gently, with 
ceremonious introduction, but suddenly and at once, the mo- 
ment the war in Europe is over. They will be new prob- 
lems, most of them ; many will be old problems in a new 
setting and with new elements which we have never dealt 
with or reckoned the force and meaning of before. They 
will require for their solution new thinking, fresh courage 
and resourcefulness, and in some matters radical reconsider- 
ations of policy. We must be ready to mobilize our re- 
sources alike of brains and of materials. 

It is not a future to be afraid of. It is, rather, a future 
to stimulate and excite us to the display of the best powers 
that are in us. We may enter it with confidence when we 
are sure that we understand it, — and we have provided our- 
selves already with the means of understanding it. 

Look first at what it will be necessary that the nations of 
the world should do to make the days to come tolerable and 
fit to live and work in ; and then look at our part in what is 
to follow and our own duty of preparation. For we must 
be prepared both in resources and in policy. 

There must be a just and settled peace, and we here in 
America must contribute the full force of our enthusiasm 
and of our authority as a nation to the organization of that 
peace upon world-wide foundations that cannot easily be 
shaken. No nation should be forced to take sides in any 
quarrel in which its own honour and integrity and the for- 



348 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

tunes of its own people are not involved ; but no nation can 
any longer remain neutral as against any wilful disturbance 
of the peace of the world. The eflfects of war can no longer 
be confined to the areas of battle. No nation stands wholly 
apart in interest when the life and interests of all nations 
are thrown into confusion and peril. If hopeful and gen- 
erous enterprise is to be renewed, if the healing and helpful 
arts of life are indeed to be revived when peace comes again, 
a new atmosphere of justice and friendship must be gener- 
ated by means the world has never tried before. The na- 
tions of the world must unite in joint guarantees that what- 
ever is done to disturb the whole world's life must first be 
tested in the court of the whole world's opinion before it is 
attempted. 

These are the new foundations the world must build for 
itself, and we must play our part in the reconstruction, gen- 
erously and without too much thought of our separate inter- 
ests. We must make ourselves ready to play it intelligently, 
vigorously, and well. 

One of the contributions we must make to the world's 
peace is this: We must see to it that the people in our 
insular possessions are treated in their own lands as we 
would treat them here, and make the rule of the United 
States mean the same thing everywhere, — the same justice, 
the same consideration for the essential rights of men. 



THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 349 

THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR THE UNITED 
STATES TO SERVE THE WORLD 

68. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

September 4, igi6 

(Congressional Record, hill, Appendix, 2160) 

. . . The commands of democracy are as imperative as its 
privileges and opportunities are wide and generous. Its 
compulsion is upon us. It will be great and lift a great light 
for the guidance of the nations only if we are great and 
carry that light high and for the guidance of our own feet. 
We are not worthy to stand here unless we ourselves be in 
deed and in truth real democrats and servants of mankind, 
ready to give our very lives for the freedom and justice and 
spiritual exaltation of the great nation which shelters and 
nurtures us. 

69. Extract from an Address of President Wilson.'^ 

September 2j, ipi6 

(From the official printed copy; for the entire address see New York 
Times, September 26, 1916) 

America has stood in the years past for that sort of 
political understanding among men which would let every 
man feel that his rights were the same as those of another 
and as good as those of another, and the mission of America 
in the field of the world's commerce is to be the same, that 
when an American comes into that competition he comes 
without any arms that would enable him to conquer by 
force, but only with those peaceful influences of intelligence, / 
a desire to serve, a knowledge of what he is about, before 

1 Statements Nos. 69 to 78 inclusive are speeches delivered by 
Mr. Wilson in his campaign for the presidency in 1916. 



350 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

which everything softens and yields and renders itself sub- 
ject. That is the mission of America, and my interest, so 
far as my small part in American affairs is concerned, is to 
lend every bit of intelligence I have to this interesting, this 
vital, this all-important matter of releasing the intelligence 
of America for the service of mankind. 

70. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October 5, ipi6 

(New York Times, October 6, 1916) 

. . . We have never yet sufficiently formulated our pro- 
gram for America with regard to the part she is going to 
play in the world, and it is imperative that she should formu- 
late it at once. But, in order to carry out a program, you 
must have a unification of spirit and purpose in America 
which no influence can invade. 

In making that program what are we to say to ourselves ? 
And what are we to say to the world? It is very important 
that the statesmen of other parts of the world should under- 
stand America. America has held off from the present con- 
flict with which the rest of the world is ablaze, not because 
she was not interested, not because she was indifferent, but 
because the part she wanted to play was a different part 
from that. 

The singularity of the present war is that its origin and 
objects never have been disclosed. They have obscure Eu- 
ropean roots which we do not know how to trace. So great 
a conflagration could not have broken out if the tinder had 
not been there, and the spark in danger of falling at any 
time. We were not the tinder. The spark did not come 
from us. It will take the long inquiry of history to explain 
this war. 



THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 351 

But Europe ought not to misunderstand us. We are 
holding off, not because we do not feel concerned, but be- 
cause when we exert the force of this nation we want to 
know what we are exerting it for. You know that we have 
always remembered and revered the advice of the great 
Washington, who advised us to avoid foreign entanglements. 
By that I understand him to mean avoid being entangled in 
the ambitions and the national purposes of other nations. 

It does not mean — if I may be permitted to venture an 
interpretation of the meaning of that great man — that we 
are to avoid the entanglements of the world, for we are part 
of the world, and nothing that concerns the whole world can 
be indifferent to us. We want always to hold the force of 
America to light for what? Not merely for the rights of 
property or of national ambition, but for the rights of 
mankind. 

71. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October 5, igi6 

(New York Times, October 6, 1916) 

America up to the present time has been, as if by delib- 
erate choice, confined and provincial, and it will be impos- 
sible for her to remain confined and provincial. Henceforth 
she belongs to the world and must act as part of the world, 
and all of the attitudes of America will henceforth be 
altered. 

The extraordinary circumstances that for the next dec- 
ade, at any rate — after that it will be a matter of our own 
choice whether it continues or not — but for the next decade, 
at any rate, we have got to serve the world. That alters 
every commercial question, it alters every political question, 



352 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

it alters every question of domestic development. The men 
who insist upon going on to do the old things in the old 
way are going to be at the tail end of the procession. 

The sign of our destiny has at last become as wide as 
the horizon. And the thing that we have to be careful 
about is that we do this thing in a new way. It has hitherto 
been done by those who wanted to exploit the world. It has 
got to be done now in a way that will deserve the confidence 
of the world. 

American character, as well as American enterprise, is 
going to be put to the test. American ideals are for the 
first time to be exhibited upon a world-wide scale, American 
purposes are going to be tested by the purposes of mankind, 
and not by the purposes of national ambition. 

^2. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October y, ipi6 

(New York Times, October 8, 1916) 

. . . We are indeed at a critical juncture in the afifairs of 
the world, and the afifairs of the world touch America very 
nearly. She does not stand apart. Her people are made 
up out of the peoples of the world. Her sympathies are as 
broad as the extended stocks of national Governments. 
There is nothing human that does not concern her. 

^2,' Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October 12, Ipi6 

(New York Times, October 13, 1916) 

I have said, and shall say again, that when the great 

present war is over it will be the duty of America to join 

with the other nations of the world in some kind of league 

for the maintenance of peace. Now, America was not a 



THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 353 

party to this war, and the only terms upon which we will 
be admitted to a league, almost all the other powerful mem- 
bers of which were engaged in the war and made infinite 
sacrifices when we apparently made none, are the only terms 
which we desire, namely, that America shall not stand for 
national aggression, but shall stand for the just conceptions 
and bases of peace, for the competitions of merit alone, and 
for the generous rivalry of liberty. 

Are we ready always to be the friends of justice, of fair- 
ness, of liberty, of peace, and of those accommodations 
which rest upon justice and peace? In these two trying 
years that have just gone by we have forborne, we have not 
allowed provocation to disturb our judgments, we have seen 
to it that America kept her poise when all the rest of the 
world seemed to have lost its poise. 

Only upon the terms of retaining that poise and using 
the splendid force which always comes with poise can we 
hope to play the beneficent part in the history of the world 
which I have just now intimated. 

74. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October 14, ipi6 

(New York Times, October 15, 1916) 

I want you to realize the part that the United States 
must play. It has been said, my fellow-citizens, been said 
with cruel emphasis in some quarters, that the people of the 
United States do not want to fight about anything. . . . But 
the people of the United States want to be sure what they 
are fighting about, and they want to be sure that they are 
fighting for the things that will bring to the world justice 
and peace. Define the elements ; let us know that we are not 
fighting for the prevalence of this nation over that, for the 



354 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

ambitions of this group of nations as compared with the 
ambitions of that group of nations; let us once be con- 
' vinced that we are called in to a great combination to fight 
for the rights of mankind, and America will unite her force 
and spill her blood for the great things which she has always 
believed in and followed. 

America is always ready to fight for things which are 
American. She does not permit herself to be embroiled, but 
she does know what it would be to be challenged. And 
when once she is challenged, there is not a man in the United 
States, I venture to say, so mean, so forgetful of the great 
heritage of this nation, that he would not give everything 
he possessed, including life itself, to stand by the honor 
of this nation. 

What Europe is beginning to realize is that we are saving 
ourselves for something greater that is to come. We are 
saving ourselves in order that we may unite in that final 
league of nations in which it shall be understood that there 
is no neutrality where any nation is doing wrong, in that 
final league of nations which must, in the providence of 
God, come into the world where nation shall be leagued with 
nation in order to show all mankind that no man may lead 
any nation into acts of aggression without having all the 
other nations of the world leagued against it. 

75. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October 16, igid 

(New York Times, October 17, 1916) 

So far America has concentrated her thought too much 
upon herself. So far she has thought too much of her in- 
ternal development merely without forecasting what use she 
is going to make of the great power which she has accumu- 



THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 355 

lated. And now, by circumstances which she did not choose, 
over which she had no control, she has been thrust out into 
the great game of mankind, on the stage of the world it- 
self, and here she must know what she is about, and no 
nation in the world must doubt that all her forces are gath- 
ered and organized in the interest of justice, righteousness, 
and humane government. . . . 

76. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October 26, igi6 

{New York Times, October 2y, 1916) 

. . . What I intend to preach from this time on is that 
America must show that as a member of the family of na- 
tions she has the same attitude toward the other nations 
that she wishes her people to have toward each other : That 
America is going to take this position, that she will lend 
her moral influence, not only, but her physical force, if 
other nations will join her, to see to it that no nation and 
no group of nations tries to take advantage of another 
nation or group of nations, and that the only thing ever 
fought for is the common rights of humanity. 

A great many men are complaining that we are not fight- 
ing now in order to get something — not something spiri- 
tual, not a right, not something we could be proud of, but 
something we could possess and take advantage of and 
trade on and profit by. They are complaining that the 
Government of the United States has not the spirit of 
other Governments, which is to put the force, the army and 
navy, of that Government behind investments in foreign 
countries. Just so certainly as you do that, you join this 
chaos of competing and hostile ambitions. 

Have you ever heard what started the present war? If 
you have, I wish you would publish it, because nobody else 



356 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

has, so far as I can gather. Nothing in particular started 
it, but everything in general. There had been growing up 
in Europe a mutual suspicion, an interchange of conjec- 
tures about what this Government and that Government 
was going to do, an interlacing of alliances and understand- 
ings, a complex web of intrigue and spying, that presently 
was sure to entangle the whole of the family of mankind 
on that side of the water in its meshes. 

Now, revive that after this war is over and sooner or 
later you will have just such another war, and this is the 
last war of the kind or of any kind that involves the world 
that the United States can keep out of. 

I say that because I believe that the business of neutrality 
is over; not because I want it to be over, but I mean this, 
that war now has such a scale that the position of neu- 
trals sooner or later becomes intolerable. Just as neutral- 
ity would be intolerable to me if I lived in a community 
where everybody had to assert his own rights by force and 
I had to go around among my neighbors and say : " Here, 
this cannot last any longer; let us get together and see that 
nobody disturbs the peace any more." That is what so- 
ciety is and we have not yet a society of nations. 

We must have a society of nations, not suddenly, not 
by insistence, not by any hostile emphasis upon the de- 
mand, but by the demonstration of the needs of the time. 
The nations of the world must get together and say, " No- 
body can hereafter be neutral as respects the disturbance 
of the world's peace for an object which the world's opinion 
can not sanction." The world's peace ought to be disturbed 
if the fundamental rights of humanity are invaded, but it 
ought not to be disturbed for any other thing that I can 
think of, and America was established in order to indi- 
cate, at any rate in one Government, the fundamental rights 
of man. America must hereafter be ready as a member of 



THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 357 

the family of nations to exert her whole force, moral and 
physical, to the assertion of those rights throughout the 
round globe. 

'j'j. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
October 28, ipi6 

(New York Times, October 29, 1916) 

We have peace, we have a peace founded upon the def- 
inite understanding that the United States, because it is 
powerful, self-possessed, because it has definite objects does 
not need to make a noise about them; because it knows 
that it can vindicate its right at any -time, does not have 
to proclaim its right in terms of violent exaggeration. We 
have determined, whether we get the respect of the rest of 
the world or not, that we will deserve it by the way in 
which we act. 

78. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 
November 4, igi6 

(New York Times, November 5, 1916) 



The world will never be again what it has been. The 
United States will never be again what it has been. The 
United States was once in enjoyment of what we used to 
call splendid isolation. The three thousand miles of the 
Atlantic seemed to hold all European affairs at arm's length 
from us. The great spaces of the Pacific seemed to dis- 
close no threat of influence upon our politics. 

Now, from across the Atlantic and from across the 
Pacific we feel to the quick the influences which are af- 
fecting ourselves, and, in the meantime, whereas we used to 
be always in search of assistance and stimulation from out 



358 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

of other countries, always in search of the capital of other 
countries to assist our investments, depending upon foreign 
markets for the sale of our securities, now we have bought 
in more than 50 per cent of those securities ; we have become 
not the debtors but the creditors of the world, and in what 
other nations used to play in promoting industries which ex- 
tended as wide as the world itself, we are playing the guiding 
part. 

We can determine to a large extent who is to be financed 
and who is not to be financed. That is the reason I 
say that the United States will never be again what it has 
been. So it does not suffice to look, as some gentlemen are 
looking, back over their shoulders, to suggest that we do 
again what we did when we were provincial and isolated and 
unconnected with the great forces of the world, for now 
we are in the great drift of humanity which is to determine 
the poHtics of every country in the world. 

With this outlook, is it worth while to stop to think of 
party advantage? Is it worth stopping to think of how we 
have voted in the past? We are now going to vote, if we 
be men with eyes open that can see the world, as those who 
wish to make a new America in a new world mean the same 
old thing for mankind that it meant when this great Republic 
was set up; mean hope and justice and righteous judgment 
and unselfish action. Why, my fellow-citizens, it is an un- 
precedented thing in the world that any nation in determin- 
ing its foreign relations should be unselfish, and my ambi- 
tion is to see America set the great example ; not only a great 
example morally, but a great example intellectually. 

Every man who has read and studied the great annals of 
this country may feel his blood warm as he feels these great 
forces of humanity growing stronger and stronger, not only, 
but knowing better and better from decade to decade how to 
concert action and unite their strength. In the days to come 



A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 359 

men will no longer wonder how America is going to work 
out her destiny, for she will have proclaimed to them that 
her destiny is not divided from the destiny of the world; 
that her purpose is justice and love of mankind. 



A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

79. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Lansing 
to the United States representatives at the capitals 
of the belligerent powers. December 18, 1^16 

(^Congressional Record, LIV, 633) 

The President suggests that an early occasion be sought 
to call out from all the nations now at war such an avowal of 
their respective views as to the terms upon which the war 
might be concluded and the arrangements which would be 
deemed satisfactory as a guaranty against its renewal or the 
kindling of any similar conflict in the future as would make 
it possible frankly to compare them. He is indifferent as to 
the means taken to accomplish this. He would be happy 
himself to serve, or even to take the initiative in its accom- 
plishment, in any way that might prove acceptable, but he 
has no desire to determine the method or the instrumentality. 
One way will be as acceptable to him as another if only the 
great object he has in mind be attained. 

He takes the liberty of calling attention to the fact that 
the objects which the statesmen of the belligerents on both 
sides have in mind in this war are virtually the same, as 
stated in general terms to their own people and to the world. 
Each side desires to make the rights and privileges of weak 
peoples and small states as secure against aggression or 
denial in the future as the rights and privileges of the great 
and powerful states now at war. Each wishes itself to be 



36o STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

made secure in the future, along with all other nations and 
peoples, against the recurrence of wars like this, and against 
aggression of selfish interference of any kind. Each would 
be jealous of the formation of any more rival leagues to 
preserve an uncertain balance of power amidst multiplying 
suspicions ; but each is ready to consider the formation of a 
league of nations to insure peace and justice throughout the 
world. Before that final step can be taken, however, each 
deems it necessary first to settle the issues of the present war 
upon terms which will certainly safeguard the independence, 
the territorial integrity, and the political and commercial 
freedom of the nations involved. 

In the measures to be taken to secure the future peace of 
the world, the people and Government of the United States 
are as vitally and as directly interested as the Governments 
now at war. Their interest, moreover, in the means to be 
adopted to relieve the smaller and weaker peoples of the 
world of the peril of wrong and violence is as quick and 
ardent as that of any other people or Government. They 
stand ready, and even eager, to cooperate in the accomplish- 
ment of these ends, when the war is over, with every influ- 
ence and resource at their command. But the war must first 
be concluded. The terms upon which it is to be concluded 
they are not at liberty to suggest ; but the President does feel 
that it is his right and his duty to point out their intimate 
interests in its conclusion, lest it should presently be too late 
to accomplish the greater things which lie beyond its con- 
clusion, lest the situation of neutral nations, now exceedingly 
hard to endure, be rendered altogether intolerable, and lest, 
more than all, an injury be done civilization itself which 
can never be atoned for or repaired. 

The President therefore feels altogether justified in sug- 
gesting an immediate opportunity for a comparison of views 
as to the terms which must precede those ultimate arrange- 



A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 361 

ments for the peace of the world, which all desire and in 
which the neutral nations as well as those at war are ready 
to play their full responsible part. If the contest must con- 
tinue to proceed towards undefined ends by slow attrition, 
until the one group of belligerents or the other is exhausted, 
if million after miUion of human lives must continue to be 
offered lip until on the one side or the other there are no 
more to offer, if resentments must be kindled that can never 
cool and despairs engendered from which there can be no 
recovery, hopes of peace and of the willing concert of free 
peoples will be rendered vain and idle. 

The life of the entire world has been profoundly affected. 
Every part of the great family of mankind has felt 
the burden and terror of this unprecedented contest of 
arms. No nation in the civilized world can be said 
in truth to stand outside its influence or to be safe against 
its disturbing effects. And yet the concrete objects for 
which it is being waged have never been definitely stated. 

The leaders of the several belligerents have, as has been 
said, stated those objects in general terms. But, stated in 
general terms, they seem the same on both sides. Never 
yet have the authoritative spokesmen of either side avowed 
the precise objects which would, if attained, satisfy them 
and their people that the war had been fought out. The 
world has been left to conjecture what definite results, what 
actual exchange of guaranties, what political or territorial 
changes or readjustments, what stage of military success 
even, would bring the war to an end. 

It may be that peace is nearer than we know; that the 
terms which the belligerents on the one side and on the other 
would deem it necessary to insist upon are not so irrecon- 
cilable as some have feared ; that an interchange of views 
would clear the way at least for conference and make the 
permanent concord of the nations a hope of the imme- 



Ill 



362 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 



diate future, a concert of nations immediately practicable. 
The President is not proposing peace ; he is not even offer- 
ing mediation. He is merely proposing that soundings be 
taken in order that we may learn, the neutral nations with 
the belligerents, how near the haven of peace may be for 
which all mankind longs with an intense and increasing long- 
ing. He believes that the spirit in which he speaks and the 
objects which he seeks will be understood by all concerned, 
and he confidently hopes for a response which will bring a 
new light into the affairs of the world. ^ 



FOUNDATIONS OF PEACE 
So. Address of President Wilson. January 22, i^ij 

(Congressional Record, LIV, 1741) 

Gentlemen of the Senate : On the eighteenth of Decem- 
ber last I addressed an identic note to the Governments of 
the nations now at war requesting them to state, more defi- 
nitely than they had yet been stated by either group of bel- 
ligerents, the terms upon which they would deem it possible 
to make peace. I spoke on behalf of humanity and of the 
rights of all neutral nations like our own, many of whose 
most vital interests the war puts in constant jeopardy. 

The Central Powers united in a reply which stated merely 
that they were ready to meet their antagonists in conference 
to discuss terms of peace. The Entente Powers have re- 
plied much more definitely and have stated, in general terms, 
indeed, but with sufficient definiteness to imply details, the 
arrangements, guarantees and acts of reparation which they 
deem to be the indispensable conditions of a satisfactory set- 
tlement. 

We are that much nearer a definite discussion of the 

1 The replies of the various governments are published in the 
Current History, New York Times, V, 783-790. 



FOUNDATIONS OF PEACE 363 

peace which shall end the present war. We are that much 
nearer the discussion of the international concert which must 
thereafter hold the world at peace. In every discussion of 
the peace that must end this war it is taken for granted 
that that peace must be followed by some definite concert 
of power which will make it virtually impossible that any 
such catastrophe should ever overwhelm us again. Every 
lover of mankind, every sane and thoughtful man must take 
that for granted. 

I have sought this opportunity to address you because I 
thought that I owed it to you, as the council associated with 
me in the final determination of our international obligations, 
to disclose to you without reserve the thought and purpose 
that have been taking form in my mind in regard to the duty 
of our Government in the days to come when it will be 
necessary to lay afresh and upon a new plan the foundations 
of peace among the nations. 

It is inconceivable that the people of the United States 
should play no part in that great enterprise. To take part 
in such a service will be the opportunity for which they have 
sought to prepare themselves by the very principles and 
purposes of their polity and the approved practices of their 
Government ever since the days when they set up a new 
nation in the high and honorable hope that it might in all 
that it was and did show mankind the way to liberty. They 
cannot in honor withhold the service to which they are now 
about to be challenged. They do not wish to withhold it. 
But they owe it to themselves and to the other nations of 
the world to state the conditions under which they will feel 
free to render it. 

That service is nothing less than this, to add their author- 
ity and their power to the authority and force of other na- 
tions to guarantee peace and justice throughout the world. 
Such a settlement cannot now be long postponed. It is 



364 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

right that before it comes this Government should frankly 
formulate the conditions upon which it would feel justified 
in asking our people to approve its formal and solemn ad- 
herence to a league for peace. I am here to attempt to state 
those conditions. 

The present war must first be ended ; but we owe it to 
candor and to a just regard for the opinion of mankind 
to say that so far as our participation in guarantees of fu- 
ture peace is concerned, it makes a great deal of difference 
in what way and upon what terms it is ended. The treaties 
and agreements which bring it to an end must embody terms 
which will create a peace that is worth guaranteeing and pre- 
serving, a peace that will win the approval of mankind, not 
merely a peace that w^ill serve the several interests and im- 
mediate aims of the nations engaged. We shall have no 
voice in determining what those terms shall be, but we shall, 
I feel sure, have a voice in determining whether they shall 
be made lasting or not by the guarantees of a universal cov- 
enant ; and our judgment upon what is fundamental and es- 
sential as a condition precedent to permanency should be 
spoken now, not afterward, when it may be too late. 

No covenant of cooperative peace that does not include 
the peoples of the New World can suffice to keep the future 
safe against war; and yet there is only one sort of peace 
that the peoples of America could join in guaranteeing. The 
elements of that peace must be elements that engage the con- 
fidence and satisfy the principles of the American Govern- 
ments, elements consistent with their political faith and the 
practical convictions which the peoples of America have once 
for all embraced and undertaken to defend. 

I do not mean to say that any American Government 
would throw any obstacle in the way of any terms of peace 
the Governments now at war might agree upon, or seek to 
upset them when made, whatever they might be. I only 



FOUNDATIONS OF PEACE 365 

take it for granted that mere terms of peace between the 
belHgerents will not satisfy even the belligerents themselves. 
Mere agreements may not make peace secure. It will be 
absolutely necessary that a force be created as a guarantor 
of the permanency of the settlement so much greater than 
the force of any nation now engaged or any alliance hitherto 
formed or projected that no nation, no probable combina- 
tion of nations could face or withstand it. 

If the peace presently to be made is to endure it must be a 
peace made secure by the organized major force of mankind. 

The terms of the immediate peace agreed upon will de- 
termine whether it is a peace for which such a guarantee 
can be secured. The question upon which the whole future 
peace and policy of the world depends is this : Is the pres- 
ent war a struggle for a just and secure peace, or only for a 
new balance of power? If it be only a struggle for a new 
balance of power, who will guarantee, who can guarantee, 
the stable equilibrium of the new arrangement? Only a 
tranquil Europe can be a stable Europe. There must be, not 
only a balance of power, but a community of power; not or- 
ganized rivalries, but an organized common peace. 

Fortunately we have received very explicit assurances on 
this point. The statesmen of both of the groups of nations 
now arrayed against one another have said, in terms that 
could not be misinterpreted, that it was no part of the pur- 
pose they had in mind to crush their antagonists. But the 
implications of these assurances may not be equally clear 
to all, — may not be the same on both sides of the water. I 
think it will be serviceable if I attempt to set forth what we 
understand them to be. 

They imply, first of all, that it must be a peace without 
victory. It is not pleasant to say this. I beg that I may be 
permitted to put my own interpretation upon it and that it 
may be understood that no other interpretation was in my 



366 STATEMEx\TS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

thought. I am seeking only to face realities and to face 
them without soft concealments. Victory would mean peace 
forced upon the loser, a victor's terms imposed upon the 
vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under 
duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, 
a resentment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace 
would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand. 
Only a peace between equals can last. Only a peace the 
very principle of which is equality and common participa- 
tion in a common benefit. The right state of mind, the right 
feeling between nations, is as necessary for a lasting peace 
as is the just settlement of vexed questions of territory or of 
racial and national allegiance. 

The equality of nations upon which peace must be founded 
if it is to last must be an equality of rights; the guarantees 
exchanged must neither recognize nor imply a difference be- 
tween big nations and small, between those that are power- 
ful and those that are weak. Right must be based upon the 
common strength, not upon tlie individual strength, of the 
nations upon whose concert peace will depend. Equality of 
territory or of resources there of course cannot be ; nor 
any sort of equality not-gained in the ordinary peaceful and 
legitimate development of the peoples themselves. But no 
one asks or expects anything more than an equality of rights. 
Mankind is looking now for freedom of life, not for equi- 
poise of power. 

And there is a deeper thing involved than even equality of 
right among organized nations. No peace can last, or ought 
to last, which does not recognize and accept the principle 
that governments derive all their just powers from the con- 
sent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to 
hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if 
they were property. I take it for granted, for instance, if I 
may venture upon a single example, that statesmen every- 



FOUNDATIONS OF PEACE 367 

where are agreed that there should be a united, independent 
and autonomous Poland, and that henceforth inviolable se- 
curity of life, of worship and of industrial and social devel- 
opment should be guaranteed to all peoples who have lived 
hitherto under the power of governments devoted to a faith 
and purpose hostile to their own. 

I speak of this, not because of any desire to exalt an ab- 
stract political principle which has always been held very 
dear by those who have sought to build up liberty in Amer- 
ica, but for the same reason that I have spoken of the other 
conditions of peace which seem to me clearly indispensable, 
— because I wish frankly to uncover realities. Any peace 
which does not recognize and accept this principle will in- 
evitably be upset. It will not rest upon the affections or 
the convictions of mankind. The ferment of spirit of whole 
populations will fight subtly and constantly against it, and 
all the world will sympathize. *The world can be at peace 
only if its life is stable, and there can be no stability where 
the will is in rebellion, where there is not tranquillity of spirit 
and a se. se of justice, of freedom and of right. 

So far as practicable, moreover, every great people now 
struggling towards a full development of its resources and 
of its powers should be assured a direct outlet to the great 
highways of the sea. Where this cannot be done by the 
cession of territory, it can no doubt be done by the neutral- 
ization of direct rights of way under the general guarantee 
which will assure the peace itself. With a right comity of 
arrangement no nation need be shut away from free access 
to the open paths of the world's commerce. 

And the paths of the sea must alike in law and in fact be 
free. The freedom of the seas is the sine qua non of peace, 
equality, and cooperation. No doubt a somewhat radical 
reconsideration of many of the rules of international prac- 
tice hitherto sought to be established may be necessary in 



368 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

order to make the seas indeed free and common in prac- 
tically all circumstances for the use of mankind, but the mo- 
tive for such changes is convincing and compelling. There 
can be no trust or intimacy between the peoples of the world 
without them. The free, constant, unthreatened intercourse 
of nations is an essential part of the process of peace and 
of development. It need not be difficult either to define 
or to secure the freedom of the seas if the governments of 
the world sincerely desire to come to an agreement con- 
cerning it. 

It is a problem closely connected with the limitation of 
naval armaments and the cooperation of the navies of the 
world in keeping the seas at once free and safe. And the 
question of limiting naval armaments opens the wider and 
perhaps more difficult question of the limitation of armies 
and of all programs of military preparation. Difficult and 
delicate as these questions are, they must be faced with 
the utmost candor and decided in a spirit of real accom- 
modation if peace is to come with healing in its wings, and 
come to stay. Peace cannot be had without concession and 
sacrifice. There can be no sense of safety and equality 
among the nations if great preponderating armaments are 
henceforth to continue here and there to be built up and 
maintained. The statesmen of the world must plan for 
peace and nations must adjust and accommodate their policy 
to it as they have planned for war and made ready for piti- 
less conquest and rivalry. The question of armaments, 
whether on land or sea, is the most immediately and in- 
tensely practical question connected with the future fortunes 
of nations and of mankind. 

I have spoken upon these great matters without reserve 
and with the utmost explicitness because it has seemed to 
me to be necessary if the world's yearning desire for peace 
was anywhere to find free voice and utterance- Perhaps 



FOUNDATIONS OF PEACE 3^9 

I am the only person in high authority amongst all the peo- 
ples of the world who is at liberty to speak and hold noth- 
ing back. I am speaking as an individual, and yet I am 
speaking also, of course, as the responsible head of a great 
Government, and I feel confident that I have said what 
the people of the United States would wish me to say. 

May I not add that I hope and believe that I am in ef- 
fect speaking for liberals and friends of humanity in every 
nation and of every program of liberty? I would fain be- 
lieve that I am speaking for the silent mass of mankind 
everywhere who have as yet had no place or opportunity 
to speak their real hearts out concerning the death and ruin 
they see to have come already upon the persons and the 
homes they hold most dear. 

And in holding out the expectation that the people and 
Government of the United States will join the other civ- 
ilized nations of the world in 'guaranteeing the permanence 
of peace upon such terms as I have named, I speak with 
the greater boldness and confidence because it is clear to 
every n an who can think that there is in this promise no 
breach in either our traditions or our policy as a nation, but 
a fulfilment, rather, of all that we have professed or striven 
for. 

I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should with 
one accord adopt the doctrine of President Monroe as the 
doctrine of the world : that no nation should seek to ex- 
tend its polity over any other nation or people, but that 
every people should be left free to determine its own polity, 
its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, 
unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful. 

I am proposing that all nations henceforth avoid en- 
tangling alliances which would draw them into competi- 
tions of power, catch them in a net of intrigue and selfish 
rivalry, and disturb their own affairs with influences in- 



370 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATIOxX 

truded from without. There is no entangling alliance in a 
concert of power. When all unite to act in the same sense 
and with the same purpose all act in the common interest 
and are free to live their own lives under a common pro- 
tection. 

I am proposing government by the consent of the gov- 
erned; that freedom of the seas which in international con- 
ference after conference representatives of the United 
States have urged with the eloquence of those who are the 
convinced disciples of liberty ; and that moderation of arm- 
aments which makes of armies and navies a power for 
order merely, not an instrument of aggression or of selfish 
violence. 

These are American principles, American policies. We 
could stand for no others. . And they are also the principles 
and policies of forward looking men and women every- 
where, and of every modern nation, of every enlightened 
community. They are the principles of mankind and must 
prevail. 



SEVERAXCE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 
WITH GERMANY 

8i. Address of President Wilson. February j, igij 

(Congressional Record, LIV, 2578) 
Gentlemen of the Congress : The Imperial German Gov- 
ernment on the thirty-first of January announced to this 
Government and to the governments of the other neutral na- 
tions that on and after the first day of February, the present 
month, it would adopt a policy with regard to the use of 
submarines against all shipping seeking to pass through 
certain designated areas of the high seas to which it is 
clearly my duty to call your attention. 

Let me remind the Congress that on the eighteenth of 



SEVERANXE OF RELATIONS WITH GERMANY 371 

April last, in view of the sinking on the twenty-fourth of 
March of the cross-channel passenger steamer Sussex by a 
German submarine, without summons or warning, and the 
consequent loss of the lives of several citizens of the United 
States who were passengers aboard her, this Government 
addressed a note to the Imperial German Government in 
which it made the following declaration : 

"If it is still the purpose of the Imperial Government 
to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against 
vessels of commerce by the use of submarines without re- 
gard to what the Government of the United States must 
consider the sacred and indisputable rules of international 
law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the 
Government of the United States is at last forced <o the 
conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue. Un- 
less the Imperial Government should now immediately de- 
clare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of 
submarine warfare against passenger and freight carrying 
vessels, the Government of the United States can have no 
choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German 
Empire altogether." 

In reply to this declaration the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment gave this Government the following assurance : 

" The German Government is prepared to do its utmost to 
confine the operations of war for the rest of its duration 
to the fighting forces of the belligerents, thereby also in- 
suring the freedom of the seas, a principle upon which the 
German Government believes now, as before, to be in agree- 
ment with the Government of the United States. 

" The German Government, guided by this idea, notifies 
the Government of the United States that the German naval 
forces have received the following orders: In accordance 
with the general principles of visit and search and destruc- 
tion of merchant vessels recognized by international law, 



372 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

such vessels, both within and without the area declared as 
naval war zone, shall not be sunk without warning and 
without saving human lives, unless these ships attempt to 
escape or offer resistance. 

" But," it added, " neutrals can not expect that Germany, 
forced to fight for her existence, shall, for the sake of 
neutral interest, restrict the use of an effective weapon if 
her enemy is permitted to continue to apply at will methods 
of warfare violating the rules of international law. Such 
a demand would be incompatible with the character of 
neutrality, and the German Government is convinced that 
the Government of the United States does not think of 
making such a demand, knowing that the Government of 
the United States has repeatedly declared that it is deter- 
mined to restore the principle of the freedom of the seas, 
from whatever quarter it has been violated." 

To this the Government of the United States replied on 
the eighth of May, accepting, of course, the assurances given, 
but adding: 

" The Government of the United States feels it necessary 
to state that it takes it for granted that the Imperial Ger- 
man Government does not intend to imply that the main- 
tenance of its newly announced policy is in any way con- 
tingent upon the course or result of diplomatic negotiations 
between the Government of the United States and any 
other belligerent Government, notwithstanding the fact that 
certain passages in the Imperial Government's note of the 
4th instant might appear to be susceptible of that construc- 
tion. In order, however, to avoid any possible misunder- 
standing, the Government of the United States notifies the 
Imperial Government that it cannot for a moment entertain, 
much less discuss, a suggestion that respect by German 
naval authorities for the rights of citizens of the United 
States upon the high seas should in any way or in the slight- 



SEVERANCE OF RELATIONS WITH GERMANY 373 

est degree be made contingent upon the conduct of any- 
other Government affecting the rights of neutrals and non- 
combatants. Responsibihty in such matters is single, not 
joint; absolute, not relative." 

To this note of the eighth of May the Imperial German 
Government made no reply. 

On the thirty-first of January, the Wednesday of the pres- 
ent week, the German Ambassador handed to the Secretary 
of State, along with a formal note, a memorandum which 
contained the following statement : 

" The Imperial Government, therefore, does not doubt that 
the Government of the United States will understand the 
situation thus forced upon Germany by the Entente Allies' 
brutal methods of war and by their determination to de- 
stroy the Central Powers, and that the Government of the 
United States will further realize that the now openly dis- 
closed intentions of the Entente Allies give back to Ger- 
many the freedom of action whicK she reserved in her 
note addressed to the Government of the United States on 
May 4, 1 91 6. 

" Under these circumstances Germany will meet the illegal 
measures of her enemies by forcibly preventing after Feb- 
ruary I, 1917, in a zone around Great Britain, France, Italy, 
and in the eastern Mediterranean, all navigation, that of 
neutrals included, from and to England and from and to 
France, etc., etc. All ships met within the zone will be 
France, etc., etc. All ships met within the zone will be sunk." 

I think that you will agree with me that, in view of this 
declaration, which suddenly and without prior intimation 
of any kind deliberately withdraws the solemn assurance 
given in the Imperial Government's note of the fourth of 
May, 191 6, this Government has no alternative consistent 
with the dignity and honor of the United States but to 
take the course which, in its note of the eighteenth of 
April, 19 16, it announced that it would take in the event 



374 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

that the German Government did not declare and effect an 
abandonment of the methods of submarine warfare which 
it was then employing and to which it now purposes again 
to resort. 

I have, therefore, directed the Secretary of State to an- 
nounce to his Excellency the German Ambassador that all 
diplomatic relations between the United States and the 
German Empire are severed, and that the American Am- 
bassador at Berlin will immediately be withdrawn ; and, in 
accordance with this decision, to hand to His Excellency his 
passports.^ 

Notwithstanding this unexpected action of the German 
Government, this sudden and deeply deplorable renunciation 
of its assurances, given this Government at one of the most 
critical moments of tension in the relations of the two Gov- 
ernments, I refuse to believe that it is the intention of the 
German authorities to do in fact what they have warned us 
they will feel at liberty to do. I cannot bring myself to be- 
lieve that they will indeed pay no regard to the ancient 
friendship between their people and our own or to the solemn 
obligations which have been exchanged between them and 
destroy American ships and take the lives of American citi- 
zens in the willful prosecution of the ruthless naval pro- 
gramme they have announced their intention to adopt. Only 
actual overt acts on their part can make me believe it even 
now. 

If this Inveterate confidence on my part in the sobriety 
and prudent foresight of their purpose should unhappily 
prove unfounded; if American ships and American lives 
should in fact be sacrificed by their naval commanders in 
heedless contravention of the just and reasonable under- 
standings of international law and the obvious dictates of 
humanity, I shall take the liberty of coming again before the 

^The German Ambassador left Washington, February 13, 1917. 



ARMED NEUTRALITY 375 

Congress, to ask that authority be given me to use any 
means that may be necessary for the protection of our sea- 
men and our people in the prosecution of their peaceful and 
legitimate errands on the high seas. I can do nothing less. 
I take it for granted that all neutral governments will take 
the same course. 

We do not desire any hostile conflict with the Imperial 
German Government. We are the sincere friends of the 
German people and earnestly desire to remain at peace with 
the Government which speaks for them. We shall not be- 
lieve that they are hostile to us unless and until we are 
obliged to believe it; and we purpose nothing more than 
the reasonable defense of the undoubted rights of our peo- 
ple. We wish to serve no selfish ends. We seek merely 
to stand true alike in thought and in action to the imme- 
morial principles of our people which I sought to express 
in my address to the Senate only two weeks ago, — seek 
merely to vindicate our right to liberty and justice and an 
unmolested life. These are the bases of peace, not war. 
God grant that we may not be challenged to defend them by 
acts of willful injustice on the part of the Government of 
Germany ! 

ARMED NEUTRALITY 

82. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

February 26, i^iy 

{Congressional Record, LIV, 4272) 
Gentlemen of the Congress : I have again asked the priv- 
ilege of addressing you, because we are moving through 
critical times, during which it seems to me to be my duty 
to keep in close touch with the houses of Congress so that 
neither counsel nor action shall run at cross purposes be- 
tween us. 

On the third of February I officially informed you of the 



376 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

sudden and unexpected action of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment in declaring its intention to disregard the prom- 
ises it had made to this Government in April last and under- 
take immediate submarine operations against all com- 
merce, whether of belligerents or of neutrals, that should 
seek to approach Great Britain and Ireland, the Atlantic 
coasts of Europe, or the harbors of the eastern Mediter- 
ranean, and to conduct those operations without regard to 
the estabHshed restrictions of international practice, with- 
out regard to any considerations of humanity even, which 
might interfere with their object. That policy was forth- 
with put into practice. It has now been in active execution 
for nearly four weeks. 

Its practical results are not fully disclosed. The com- 
merce of other neutral nations is suffering severely, but not, 
perhaps, very much more severely than it was already suf- 
fering before the first of February, when the new policy ofi 
the Imperial Government was put into operation. We have 
asked the cooperation of the other neutral Governments to 
prevent these depredations, but so far none of them has 
thought it wise to join us in any common course of action. 
Our own commerce has suft'ered, is suffering, rather in ap- 
prehension than in fact, rather because so many of our ships 
are timidly keeping to their home ports than because Ameri- 
can ships have been sunk. 

In sum, therefore, the situation we find ourselves in with 
regard to the actual conduct of the German submarine war- 
fare against commerce, and its effects upon our own ships 
and people, is substantially the same that it was when I ad- 
dressed you on the third of February, except for the tying 
up of our shipping in our own ports because of the unwill- 
ingness of our ship-owners to risk their vessels at sea with- 
out insurance or adequate protection, and the very serious 



ARMED NEUTRALITY 377 

congestion of our commerce which has resulted, a congestion 
which is growing rapidly more and more serious every day. 
This in itself might presently accomplish, in efifect, what 
the new German submarine orders were meant to accom- 
plish, so far as we are concerned. We can only say, there- 
fore, that the overt act which I have ventured to hope the 
German commanders would in fact avoid has not occurred. 

But, while this is happily true, it must be admitted that 
there have been certain additional indications and expres- 
sions of purpose on the part of the German press and the 
German authorities which have increased rather than les- 
sened the impression that, if our ships and our people are 
spared, it will be because of fortunate circumstances or be- 
cause the commanders of the German submarines which 
they may happen to encounter exercise an unexpected dis- 
cretion and restraint rather than because of the instruc- 
tions under which those commanders are acting. It would 
be foolish to deny that the situation is fraught with the 
gravest possibilities and dangers. No thoughtful man can 
fail to see that the necessity for definite action may come at 
any time, if we are in fact, and not in word merely, to de- 
fend our elementary rights as a neutral nation. It would 
be most imprudent to be unprepared. 

I cannot in such circumstances be unmindful of the fact 
that the expiration of the term of the present Congress is 
immediately at hand, by constitutional limitation; and that 
it would in all likelihood require an unusual length of time 
to assemble and organize the Congress which is to succeed it. 

I feel that I ought, in view of that fact, to obtain from 
you full and immediate assurance of the authority which I 
may need at any moment to exercise. No doubt I already 
possess that authority without special warrant of law, by the 
plain implication of my constitutional duties and powers ; but 
I prefer, in the present circumstances, not to act upon gen- 



378 STATEMENTS OF THE ADAIIXISTRATION 

eral implication. I wish to feel that the authority and the 
power of the Congress are behind me in whatever it may 
become necessary for me to do. We are jointly the serv- 
ants of the people and must act together and in their spirit, 
so far as we can divine and interpret it. 

No one doubts what it is our duty to do. We must de- 
fend our commerce and the lives of our people in the midst 
of the present trying circumstances, with discretion, but 
with clear and steadfast purpose. Only the method and 
the extent remain to be chosen, upon the occasion, if oc- 
casion should indeed arise. Since it has unhappily proved 
impossible to safeguard our neutral rights by diplomatic 
means against the unwarranted infringements they are suf- 
fering at the hands of Germany, there may be no recourse 
but to armed neutrality, which we shall know how to main- 
tain and for which there is abundant American precedent. 

It is devoutly to be hoped that it will not be necessary 
to put armed force anywhere into action. The American 
people do not desire it, and our desire is not different from 
theirs. I am sure that they will understand the spirit in 
which I am now acting, the purpose I hold nearest my 
heart and would wish to exhibit in everything I do. I am 
anxious that the people of the nations at war also should 
understand and not mistrust us. I hope that I need give no 
further proofs and assurances than I have already given 
throughout nearly three years of anxious patience that I am 
the friend of peace and mean to preserve it for America so 
long as I am able. I am not now proposing or contemplating 
war or any steps that lead to it. I merely request that you 
will accord me by your own vote and definite bestowal the 
means and the authority to safeguard in practice the right of 
a great people who are at peace and who are desirous of 
exercising none but the rights of peace to follow the pursuit 
of peace in quietness and goodwill, — rights recognized time 



ARMED NEUTRALITY 379 

out of mind by all the civilized nations of the world. 
No course of my choosing or of theirs will lead to war. 
War can come only by the wilful acts and aggressions of 
others. 

You will understand ^vhy I can make no definite pro- 
posals or forecasts of action now and must ask for your 
supporting authority in the most general terms. The form 
in which action may become necessary cannot yet be fore- 
seen. I believe that the people will be willing to trust me 
to act with restraint, with prudence, and in the true spirit 
of amity and good faith that they have themselves displayed 
throughout these trying months ; and it is in that belief that 
I request that you will authorize me to supply our merchant 
ships with defensive arms, should that become necessary, 
and with the means of using them, and to employ any other 
instrumentalities or methods that may be necessary and ade- 
quate to protect our ships and our people in their legitimate 
and peaceful pursuits on the seas. I request also that you 
will grant me at the same time, along with the powers I ask, 
a sufficient credit to enable me to provide adequate means of 
protection where they are lacking, including adequate insur- 
ance against the present war risks. 

I have spoken of our commerce and of the legitimate er- 
rands of our people on the seas, but you will not be misled as 
to my main thought, the thought that lies beneath these 
phrases and gives them dignity and weight. It is not of 
material interests merely that we are thinking. It is, 
rather, of fundamental human rights, chief of all the right 
of life itself. I am thinking, not only of the rights of 
Americans to go and come about their proper business by 
way of the sea, but also of something much deeper, much 
more fundamental than that. I am thinking of those rights 
of humanity without which there is no civilization. My 
theme is of those great principles of compassion and of 



38o STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

protection which mankind has sought to throw about human 
Hves, the Hves of non-combatants, the Hves of men who are 
peacefully at work keeping the industrial processes of the 
world quick and vital, the lives of women and children and 
of those who supply the labor which ministers to their 
sustenance. We are speaking of no selfish material right 
but of rights which our hearts support and whose foundation 
is that righteous passion for justice upon which all law, all 
structures alike of family, of state, and of mankind must 
rest, and upon the ultimate base of our existence and our 
liberty. I cannot imagine any man with American prin- 
ciples at his heart hesitating to defend these things.^ 



GENERAL FOREIGN POLICY 

83. Extract from the Inaugural Address of President 
Wilson, March 5, ipi/ 

(From the official printed text ; for the entire address see New York 

Times, March 6, 1917) 

. . . We stand firm in armed neutrality, since it seems that 
in no other way we can demonstrate what it is we insist upon 
and cannot forego. We may even be drawn on, by circum- 
stances, not by our own purpose or desire, to a more active 
assertion of our rights as we see them and a more immediate 
association with the great struggle itself. But nothing will 
alter our thought or our purpose. They are too clear to be 
obscured. They are too deeply rooted in the principles of 
our national life to be altered. We desire neither conquest 
nor advantage. We wish nothing that can be had only at 
the cost of another people. We have always professed un- 

1 For the action by Congress upon the request contained in this 
note, see infra, p. 141. For the President's comment on the action 
of the minority in the Senate, see Current History, New York Times, 
VI, 51. 



GENERAL FOREIGN POLICY 381 

selfish purpose and we covet the opportunity to prove that 
our professions are sincere. 

, . . We are provincials no longer. The tragical events 
of the thirty months of vital turmoil through which we have 
just passed have made us citizens of the world. There can 
be no turning back. Our own fortunes as a nation are in- 
volved, whether we would have it so or not. 

And yet we are not the less Americans on that account. 
We shall be the more American if we but remain true to 
the principles in which we have been bred. They are not 
the principles of a province or of a single continent. We 
have known and boasted all along that they were the prin- 
ciples of a liberated mankind. These, therefore, are the 
things we shall stand for, whether in war or in peace : 

That all nations are equally interested in the peace of 
the world and in the political stability of free peoples, and 
equally responsible for their maintenance ; 

That the essential principle of peace is the actual equality 
of nations in all matters of right or privilege ; 

That peace cannot securely or justly rest upon an armed 
balance of power ; 

That Governments derive all their just powers from the 
consent of the governed and that no other powers should be 
supported by the common thought, purpose, or power of the 
family of nations; 

That the seas should be equally free and safe for the use 
of all peoples, under rules set up by common agreement and 
consent, and that, so far as practicable, they should be 
accessible to all upon equal terms ; 

That national armaments should be limited to the necessi- 
ties of national order and domestic safety ; 

That the community of interest and of power upon which 
peace must henceforth depend imposes upon each nation the 
duty of seeing to it that all influences proceeding from its 



382 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

own citizens meant to encourage or assist revolution in other 
states should be sternly and effectually suppressed and 
prevented. 



NECESSITY OF WAR WITH GERMANY 
84. Address of President Wilson. April 2, igi'i 

{House Document No. i, 65th Congress, ist Session) 
Gentlemen of the Congress : I have called the Congress 
into extraordinary session because there are serious, very 
serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, 
which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible 
that I should assume the responsibility of making. 

On the third of February last I officially laid before you 
the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German 
Government that on and after the first day of February it 
was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of 
humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that 
sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and 
Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports 
controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediter- 
ranean. That had seemed to be the object of the German 
submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last 
year the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained 
the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its 
promise then given to us that passenger boats should not be 
sunk and that due warning would be given to all other 
vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy, when no 
resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken 
that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save 
their lives in their open boats. The precautions taken were 
meagre and haphazard enough, as w^as proved in distressing 
instance after instance in the progress of the cruel and 



NECESSITY OF WAR WITH GERMANY 383 

unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was 
observed. The new policy has swept every restriction aside. 
\^essels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, 
their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruth- 
lessly sent to the bottom without warning and without 
thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of 
friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even 
hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved 
and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were 
provided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by 
the German Government itself and were distinguished by 
unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the 
same reckless lack of compassion or of principle. 

I was for a little while unable to believe that such things 
would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto 
subscribed to the humane practices of civilized nations. 
International law had its origin in the attempt to set up some 
law which would be respected and observed upon the seas, 
where no nation had right of dominion and where lay the 
free highways of the world. By painful stage after stage 
has that law been built up, with meagre enough results, 
indeed, after all was accomplished that could be accom- 
plished, but always with a clear view, at least, of what the 
heart and conscience of mankind demanded. This mini- 
mum of right the German Government has swept aside 
under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it 
had no weapons which it could use at sea except those which 
it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without 
throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect 
for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the 
intercourse of the world. I am not now thinking of the loss 
of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but 
only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives 
of non-combatants, men, women, and children, engaged in 



384 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods 
of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. 
Property can be paid for ; the lives of peaceful and innocent 
people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare 
against commerce is a warfare against mankind. 

It is a war against all nations. American ships have been 
sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred 
us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other 
neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and over- 
whelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been 
no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each 
nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice 
we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of 
counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our char- 
acter and our motives as a nation. We must put excited 
feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the vic- 
torious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but 
only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we 
are only a single champion. 

When I addressed the Congress on the twenty-sixth of 
February last I thought that it would suffice to assert our 
neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against 
unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe 
against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it now 
appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect 
outlaws when used as the German submarines have been 
used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend 
ships against their attacks as the law of nations has assumed 
that merchantmen would defend themselves against priva- 
teers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open 
sea. It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim 
necessity indeed, to endeavor to destroy them before they 
have shown their own intention. They must be dealt with 
upon sight, if dealt with at all. The German Government 



NECESSITY OF WAR WITH GERMANY 385 

denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all within the 
areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defense 
of rights which no modern publicist has ever before ques- 
tioned their right to defend. The intimation is conveyed 
that the armed guards which we have placed on our merchant 
ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and subject 
to be dealt with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is 
ineffectual enough at best ; in such circumstances and in the 
face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual: it is 
likely only to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is 
practically certain to draw us into the war without either the 
rights or the effectiveness of belligerents. There is one 
choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making : we will 
not choose the path of submission and suft'er the most sacred 
rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or vio- 
lated. The wrongs against which we now array ourselves 
are no common wrongs ; they cut to the very roots of human 
life. 

With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical 
character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsi- 
bilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to 
what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the Con- 
gress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment to be in fact nothing less than war against the 
government and people of the United States ; that it formally 
accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust 
upon it; and that it take immediate steps not only to put 
the country in a more thorough state of defense but also 
to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring 
the Government of the German Empire to terms and end 
the war. 

What this will involve is clear. It will involve the 
utmost practicable cooperation in counsel and action with 
the governments now at war with Germany, and, as incident 



386 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

to that, the extension to those governments of the most 
liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may so 
far as possible be added to theirs. It will involve the organ- 
ization and mobilization of all the material resources of 
the country to supply the materials of war and serve the 
incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet 
the most economical and efficient way possible. It will 
involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all 
respects but particularly in supplying it with the best means 
of dealing with the enemy's submarines. It will involve the 
immediate addition to the armed forces of the United States 
already provided for by law in case of war at least five 
hundred thousand men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen 
upon the principle of universal liability to service, and also 
the authorization of subsequent additional increments of 
equal force so soon as they may be needed and can be 
handled in training. It will involve also, of course, the 
granting of adequate credits to the Government, sustained, 
I hope, so far as they can equitably be sustained by the 
present generation, by well conceived taxation. 

I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation 
because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to base 
the credits which will now be necessary entirely on money 
borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to pro- 
tect our people so far as we may against the very serious 
hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of the 
inflation which would be produced by vast loans. 

In carrying out the measures by which these things are to 
be accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wis- 
dom of interfering as little as possible in our own prepara- 
tion and in the equipment of our own military forces with 
the duty, — for it will be a very practical duty, — of supply- 
ing the nations already at war with Germany with the 
materials which they can obtain only from us or by our 



NECESSITY OF WAR WITH GERMANY 387 

assistance. They are in the field and we should help them in 
every way to be effective there. 

I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several 
executive departments of the Government, for the consid- 
eration of your committees, measures for the accomplish- 
ment of the several objects I have mentioned. I hope that 
it will be your pleasure to deal with them as having been 
framed after very careful thought by the branch of the 
Government upon which the responsibility of conducting the 
war and safeguarding the nation will most directly fall. 

While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, 
let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the world 
what our motives and our objects are. My own thought 
has not been driven from its habitual and normal course by 
the unhappy events of the last two months, and I do not 
believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or 
clouded by them. I have exactly the same things in mind 
now that I had in mind when I addressed the Senate on the 
twenty-second of January last ; the same that I had in mind 
when I addressed the Congress on the third of February and 
on the twenty-sixth of February. Our object now, as then, 
is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life 
of tlie world as against selfish and autocratic power and to 
set up amongst the really free and self-governed peoples of 
the world such a concert of purpose and of action as will 
henceforth ensure the observance of those principles. Neu- 
trality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of 
the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and 
the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence 
of autocratic governments backed by organized force which 
is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their 
people. We have seen the last of neutrality in such cir- 
cumstances. We are at the beginning of an age in which it 
will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of 



388 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among na- 
tions and their governments that are observed among the 
individual citizens of civilized states. 

We have no quarrel with the German people. We have 
no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and friendship. 
It was not upon their impulse that their government acted 
in entering this war. It was not with their previous knowl- 
edge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars 
used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when 
peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars 
were provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties or of 
little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use 
their fellow men as pawns and tools. Self-governed nations 
do not fill their neighbor states with spies or set the course 
of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of affairs 
which will give them an opportunity to strike and make con- 
quest. Such designs can be successfuly worked out only 
under cover and where no one has the right to ask questions. 
Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression, car- 
ried, it may be, from generation to generation, can be worked 
out and kept from the light only within the privacy of courts 
or behind the carefully guarded confidences of a narrow 
and privileged class. They are happily impossible where 
public opinion commands and insists upon full information 
concerning all the nation's affairs. 

A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained ex- 
cept by a partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic 
government could be trusted to keep faith within it or ob- 
serve its covenants. It must be a league of honor, a part- 
nership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away ; the 
plottings of inner circles who could plan what they would 
and render account to no one would be a corruption 
seated at its very heart. Only free peoples can hold their 
purpose and their honor steady to a common end and pre- 



NECESSITY OF WAR WITH GERMANY 389 

fer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their 
own. 

Does not every American feel that assurance has been 
added to our hope for the future peace of the world by the 
wonderful and heartening things that have been happening 
within the last few weeks in Russia ? Russia was known by 
those who knew it best to have been always in fact demo- 
cratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, in all 
the intimate relationships of her people that spoke their nat- 
ural instinct, their habitual attitude towards life. The au- 
tocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, 
long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality of its 
power, was not in fact Russian in origin, character, or pur- 
pose ; and now it has been shaken off and the great, gener- 
ous Russian people have been added in all their naive maj- 
esty and might to the forces that are fighting for freedom 
in the world, for justice, and for peace. Here is a fit part- 
ner for a League of Honor. 

One of the things that has served to convince us that the 
Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend 
is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled 
our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of gov- 
ernment with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere 
afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace within 
and without, our industries and our commerce. Indeed it 
is now evident that its spies were here even before the war 
began; and it is unhappily not a matter of conjecture but a 
fact proved in our courts of justice that the intrigues which 
have more than once come perilously near to disturbing the 
peace and dislocating the industries of the country have been 
carried on at the instigation, with the support, and even 
under the personal direction of official agents of the Im- 
perial Government accredited to the Government of the 
United States. Even in checking these things and trying 



390 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

to extirpate them we have sought to put the most generous 
interpretation possible upon them because we knew that 
their source lay, not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the 
German people towards us (who were, no doubt as ignorant 
of them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish de- 
signs of a Government that did what it pleased and told its 
people nothing. But they have played their part in serving 
to convince us at last that that Government entertains no 
real friendship for us and means to act against our peace 
and security at its convenience. That it means to stir up 
enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted note 
to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence. 
We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because 
we know that in such a government, following such methods, 
we can never have a friend ; and that in the presence of its 
organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we know 
not what purpose, there can be no assured security for the 
democratic governments of the world. We are now about 
to accept gauge of battle with this natural foe to lib- 
erty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the 
nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. 
We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of 
false pretence about them, to fight thus for the ultimate 
peace of the world and for the liberation of its peo- 
ples, the German peoples included : for the rights of na- 
tions great and small and the privilege of men everywhere 
to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world 
must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be 
planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We 
have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no 
dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no ma- 
terial compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. 
We are but one of the champions of the rights of man- 
kind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been 



NECESSITY OF WAR WITH GERMANY 391 

made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can 
make them. 

Just because we fight without rancor and without self- 
ish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall 
wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confi- 
dent, conduct our operations as belligerents without pas- 
sion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the prin- 
ciples of right and fair play we profess to be fighting for. 

I have said nothing of the governments allied with the 
Imperial Government of Germany because they have not 
made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and 
our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Government has, in- 
deed, avowed its unqualified endorsement and acceptance of 
the reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now 
without disguise by the Imperial German Government, and 
it has therefore not been possible for this Government to 
receive Count Tarnowski, the Ambassador recently accred- 
ited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Govern- 
ment of Austria-Hungary; but that Government has not 
actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United 
States 0.0 the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at 
least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the 
authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only where we 
are clearly forced into it because there are no other means 
of defending our rights. 

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as 
belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because 
we act without animus, not in enmity towards a people or 
with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon 
them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible gov- 
ernment which has thrown aside all considerations of hu- 
manity and of right and is running amuck. We are, let 
me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, 
and shall desire nothing so much as the early re-establish- 



392 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

ment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us, 
— however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to 
believe that this is spoken from our hearts. We have borne 
with their present government through all these bitter months 
because of that friendship, — exercising a patience and for- 
bearance which would otherwise have been impossible. We 
shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friend- 
ship in our daily attitude and actions towards the millions 
of men and women of German birth and native sympathy 
who live amongst us and share our life, and we shall be 
proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to their 
neighbors and to the Government in the hour of test. 
They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if 
they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They 
will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining 
the few who may be of a different mind and purpose. If 
there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm 
hand of stern repression ; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will 
lift it only here and there and without countenance except 
from a lawless and malignant few. 

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlenv?n of the 
Congress, which I have performed .in thus addressing you. 
There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice 
ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great 
peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disas- 
trous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the 
balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and 
we shall fight for the things which we have always carried 
nearest our hearts, — for democracy, for the right of those 
who submit to authority to have a voice in their own gov- 
ernments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a 
universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peo- 
ples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make 
the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedi- 



SPEAK, ACT, AND SERVE TOGETHER 393 

cate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and 
everything that we have, with the pride of those who know 
that the day has come when America is privileged to spend 
her blood and her might for the principles that gave her 
birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. 
God helping her, she can do no other. 



SPEAK, ACT, AND SERVE TOGETHER 

85. Extract from a Statement of President Wilson. 

April 15, 19 17 

(From the official printed text; for the entire statement see Congres- 
sional Record [Daily], LV, 711) 

My Fellow Countrymen : 

The entrance of our own beloved country into the grim 
and terrible war for democracy and human rights which has 
shaken the world creates so many problems of national life 
and action which call for immediate consideration and set- 
tlement that I hope you will permit me to address to you 
a few w^rds of earnest counsel and appeal with regard to 
them. < 

We are rapidly putting our navy upon an effective war 
footing and are about to create and equip a great army, but 
these are the simplest parts of the great task to which we 
have addressed ourselves. There is not a single selfish ele- 
ment, so far as I can see, in the cause we are fighting for. 
We are fighting for what we believe and wish to be the 
rights of mankind and for the future peace and security of 
the world. To do this great thing worthily and successfully 
we must devote ourselves to the service without regard to 
profit or material advantage and with an energy and intel- 
ligence that will rise to the level of the enterprise itself. 
We must realize to the full how great the task is and how 



394 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

many things, how many kinds and elements of capacity and 
service and self-sacrifice it involves. 

These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, be- 
sides fighting, — the things without which mere fighting 
would be fruitless : 

We must supply abundant food for ourselves and for 
our armies and our seamen not only but also for a large 
part of the nations with whom we have now made common 
cause, in whose support and by whose sides we shall be 
fighting; 

We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our ship- 
yards to carry to the other side of the sea, submarines or 
no submarines, what will every day be needed there, and 
abundant materials out of our fields and our mines and 
our factories with which not only to clothe and equip our 
own forces on land and sea but also to clothe and support 
our people for whom the gallant fellows under arms can 
no longer work, to help clothe and equip the armies with 
which we are cooperating in Europe and to keep the looms 
and manufactories there in raw materials ; coal to keep the 
fires going in ships at sea and in the furnaces of hundreds 
of factories across the sea ; steel out of which to make arms 
and ammunition both here and there ; rails for worn out 
railways back of the fighting fronts ; locomotives and roll- 
ing stock to take the place of those every day going to pieces ; 
mules, horses, cattle for labor and for military service ; 
everything with which the people of England and France 
and Italy and Russia have usually supplied themselves, but 
cannot now afi'ord the men, the materials, or the machinery 
to make. 

It is evident to every thinking man that our industries, 
on the farms, in the shipyards, in the mines, in the factories, 
must be made more prolific and more efficient than ever 
and that they must be more economically managed and bet- 



SPEAK, ACT, AND SERVE TOGETHER 395 

ter adapted to the particular requirements of our task than 
they have been ; and what I want to say is that the men and 
the women who devote their thought and their energy to 
these things will be serving the country and conducting the 
fight for peace and freedom just as truly and just as effec- 
tively as the men on the battlefield or in the trenches. 
The industrial forces of the country, men and women 
alike, will be a great national, a great international, service 
army, — a notable and honored host engaged in the service 
of the nation and the world, the efficient friends and sav- 
iors of free men everywhere. Thousands, nay, hundreds 
of thousands, of men otherwise liable to military service 
will of right and of necessity be excused from that service 
and assigned to the fundamental, sustaining work of the 
fields and factories and mines, and they will be as much 
part of the great patriotic forces of the nation as the men 
under fire. 



. . . Let every man and every woman assume the duty of 
careful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a 
dictate of patriotism which no one can now expect ever to 
be excused or forgiven for ignoring. 

In the hope that this statement of the needs of the na- 
tion and of the world in this hour of supreme crisis may 
stimulate those to whom it comes and remind all who need 
reminder of the solemn duties of a time such as the world 
has never seen before, I beg that all editors and publishers 
everywhere will give as prominent publication and as wide 
circulation as possible to this appeal. I venture to suggest, 
also, to all advertising agencies that they would perhaps 
render a very substantial and timely service to the country 
if they would give it widespread repetition. And I hope that 
clergymen will not think the theme of it an unworthy or in- 



396 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

appropriate subject of comment and homily from their 
pulpits. 

The supreme test of the nation has come. We must all 
speak, act, and serve together ! 



PURPOSES AND OBJECTS OF THE 
UNITED STATES 

86. A Letter of President Wilson to Representative 
Heflin, of Alabama. JMay 22, i^iy 

{Official Bulletin, Washington, May 23, 191 7) 

It is incomprehensible to me how any frank or honest 
person could doubt or question my position with regard to 
the war and its objects. I have again and again stated the 
very serious and long-continued wrongs which the Imperial 
German Government has perpetrated against the rights, the 
commerce, and the citizens of the United States. The list 
is long and overwhelming. No nation that respected itself 
or the rights of humanity could have borne those wrongs any 
longer. 

Our objects In going into the war have been stated with 
equal clearness. The whole of the conception, which I take 
to be the conception of our fellow countrymen with regard 
to the outcome of the war and the terms of its settlement I 
set forth with the utmost explicitness in an address to the 
Senate of the United States on the 22d of January last. 
Again, in my message to Congress on the 2d of April last, 
those objects were stated in unmistakable terms. I can con- 
ceive no purpose in seeking to becloud this matter except the 
purpose of weakening the hands of the Government and 
making the part which the United States is to play in this 
great struggle for human liberty an inefficient and hesitating 
part. We have entered the war for our own reasons and 
with our own objects clearly stated, and shall forget neither 



CALL TO HIGH SERVICE 397 

the reasons nor the objects. There is no hate in our hearts 
for the German people, but there is a resolve which cannot 
be shaken even by misrepresentation to overcome the pre- 
tensions of the autocratic Government v^hich acts upon pur- 
poses to v^hich the German people have never consented. 



CALL TO HIGH SERVICE 

87. Extract from an Address of President Wilson. 

May so, 19 17 

(OMcial Bulletin, Washington, May 31, 1917) 
• •••..... 

When you reflect upon it, these men who died to pre- 
serve the Union died to preserve the instrument which we 
are now using to serve the world — a free nation espous- 
ing the cause of human liberty. In one sense the great 
struggle into which we have now entered is an American 
struggle because it is in the defense of American honor and 
American rights, but it is something even greater than 
that; it is a world struggle. It is the struggle of men who 
love liberty everywhere, and in this cause America will 
show herself greater than ever because she will rise to a 
greater thing. We have said in the beginning that we 
planted this great Government that men who wish freedom 
might have a place of refuge and a place where their hope 
could be realized, and now, having estabhshed such a Govern- 
ment, having preserved such a Government, having vindi- 
cated the power of such a Government, we are saying to all 
mankind : " We did not set this Government up in order 
that we might have a selfish and separate liberty, for we are 
now ready to come to your assistance and fight upon the field 
of the world the cause of human liberty." In this thing 
America attains her full dignity and the full fruition of her 
great purpose. 



398 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

No man can be glad that such things have happened as 
we have witnessed in these last fateful years, but perhaps 
it may be permitted to us to be glad that we have an oppor- 
tunity to show the principles that we profess to be living 
principles that live in our hearts, and to have a chance by the 
pouring out of our blood and treasure to vindicate the 
thing which we have professed. For, my friends, the real 
fruition of life is to do the things we have said we wished 
to do. There are times when work seems empty and only 
action seems great. Such a time has come, and in the 
providence of God America will once more have an op- 
portunity to show to the world that she was born to serve 
mankind. 



WAR ALMS OF THE UNITED STATES 

88. Extract from a Communication of President Wilson 
to the Government of Russia. June p, ipi/ 

(OtHcial Bulletin, Washington, June 9, 1917) 

In view of the approaching visit of the American dele- 
gation to Russia ^ to express the deep friendship of the 
American people for the people of Russia and to discuss 
the best and most practical means of co-operation between 
the two peoples in carrying the present struggle for the free- 
dom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it seems 
opportune and appropriate that I should state again, in the 
light of this new partnership, the objects the United States 
has had in mind in entering the war. Those objects have 
been very much beclouded during the past few weeks by 
mistaken and misleading statements, and the issues at stake 
are too momentous, too tremendous, too significant, for the 
whole human race to permit any misinterpretations or mis- 

1 The American commission headed by Elihu Root had arrived 
in Russia and was formally received in Petrograd on June 15, 1917. 



WAR AIMS OF THE UNITED STATES 399 

understandings, however slight, to remain uncorrected for 
a moment. 

The position of America in this war is so clearly avowed 
that no man can be excused for mistaking it. She seeks no 
material profit or aggrandizement of any kind. She is fight- 
ing for no advantage or selfish object of her own, but for 
the liberation of peoples everywhere from the aggressions 
of autocratic force. 

We are fighting for the liberty, the self-government, and 
the undictated development of all peoples, and every fea- 
ture of the settlement that concludes this war must be con- 
ceived and executed for that purpose. Wrongs must first 
be righted and then adequate safeguard must be cre- 
ated to prevent their being committed again.' We ought 
not to consider remedies merely because they have a pleas- 
ing and sonorous sound. Practical questions can be settled 
only by practical means. Phrases will not accomplish the re- 
sult. Effective readjustments will, and whatever readjust- 
ments are necessary must be made. 

But they must follow a principle, and that principle is 
plain. * No people must be forced under sovereignty under 
which it does not wish to live. No territory must change 
hands except for the purpose of securing those who inhabit 
it a fair chance of life and liberty. No indemnities must 
be insisted on except those that constitute payment for mani- 
fest wrongs done. No readjustments of power must be 
made except such as will tend to secure the future peace of 
the world and the future welfare and happiness of its 
peoples. ^ 

And then the free peoples of the world must draw to- 
gether in some common covenant, some genuine and practi- 
cal co-operation that will in effect combine their force to 



400 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

secure peace and justice in the dealings of nations with one 
another. 

The brotherhood of mankind must no longer be a fair 
but empty phrase; it must be given a structure of force 
and reality. The nations must realize their common life 
and effect a workable partnership to secure that life against 
the aggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing power. 

For these things we can afford to pour out blood and 
treasure. For these are the things we have always pro- 
fessed to desire, and unless we pour out blood and treas- 
ure now and succeed we may never be able to unite or 
show conquering force again in the great cause of human 
liberty. The day has come to conquer or submit. If the 
forces of autocracy can divide us, they will overcome us ; 
if we stand together, victory is certain, and the liberty 
which victory will secure. We can afford then to be gen- 
erous, but we cannot afford then or now to be weak or omit 
any single guarantee of justice and security. 



THE CASE AGAINST GERMANY 
89. Address of President IVilson. June 14, 1^17 

(From the official printed text) 

We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag which we 
honour and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, 
our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no 
other character than that which we give it from generation 
to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic 
silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether 
in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us, 
— speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who 
went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. We 
celebrate the day of its birth ; and from its birth until now 
it has witnessed a great history, has floated on high the sym- 



THE CASE AGAINST GERMANY 401 

bol of great events, of a great plan of life worked out by a 
great people. We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it 
where it will draw the fire of our enemies. We are about 
to bid thousands, hundreds of thousands, it may be mil- 
lions, of our men, the young, the strong, the capable men 
ol the nation, to go forth and die beneath it on fields of 
blood far away, — for what ? For some unaccustomed 
thing ? For something for which it has never sought the fire 
before? American armies were never before sent across 
the seas. Why are they sent now? For some new pur- 
pose, for which this great flag has never been carried be- 
fore, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for which it 
has seen men, its own men, die on every battlefield upon 
which Americans have borne arms since the Revolution? 

These are questions which must be answered. We are 
Americans. We in our turn serve America, and can serve 
her with no private purpose. We must use her flag as she 
has always used it. We are accountable at the bar of his- 
tory and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it is 
we seek to serve. 

It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. The 
extraordinary insults and aggressions of the Imperial Ger- 
man Government left us no self-respecting choice but to 
take up arms in defense of our rights as a free people and 
of our honour as a sovereign government. The military 
masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. 
They filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies 
and conspirators and sought to corrupt the opinion of our 
people in their own behalf. When they found that they 
could not do that, their agents diligently spread sedition 
amongst us and sought to draw our own citizens from their 
allegiance, — and some of those agents were men connected 
with the official Embassy of the German Government itself 
here in our own capital. They sought by violence to de- 



402 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

stroy our industries and arrest our commerce. They tried 
to incite Mexico to take up arms against us and to draw 
Japan into a hostile alHance with her, — and that, not by 
indirection, but by direct suggestion from the Foreign Of- 
fice in Berhn. They impudently denied us the use of the 
high seas and repeatedly executed their threat that they 
would send to their death any of our people who ventured 
to approach the coasts of Europe. And many of our own 
people were corrupted. Men began to look upon their own 
neighbours with suspicion and to wonder in their hot re- 
sentment and surprise whether there was any community 
in which hostile intrigue did not lurk. What great nation 
in such circumstances would not have taken up arms? 
Much as we had desired peace, it was denied us, and not 
of our own choice. This flag under which we serve would 
have been dishonoured had we withheld our hand. 

But that is only part of the story. We know now as 
clearly as we knew before we were ourselves engaged that 
we are not the enemies of the German people and that they 
are not our enemies. They did not originate or desire this 
hideous war or wish that we should be drawn into it; and 
we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting their cause, 
as they will some day see it, as well as our own. They are 
themselves in the grip of the same sinister power that has 
now at last stretched its ugly talons out and drawn blood 
from us. The whole world is at war because the whole 
world is in the grip of that power and is trying out the 
great battle which shall determine whether it is to be brought 
under its mastery or fling itself free. 

The war was begun by the military masters of Germany, 
who proved to be also the masters of Austria-Hungary. 
These men have never regarded nations as peoples, men, 
women, and children of like blood and frame as themselves, 
for whom governments existed and in whom governments 



THE CASE AGAINST GERMANY 403 

had their life. They have regarded them merely as serv- 
iceable organizations which they could by force or intrigue 
bend or corrupt to their own purpose. They have regarded 
the smaller states, in particular, and the peoples who could 
be overwhelmed by force, as their natural tools and instru- 
ments of domination. Their purpose has long been avowed. 
The statesmen of other nations, to whom that purpose was 
incredible, paid little attention ; regarded what German pro- 
fessors expounded in their classrooms and German writers 
set forth to the world as the goal of German policy as 
rather the dream of minds detached from practical affairs, 
as preposterous private conceptions of German destiny, than 
as the actual plans of responsible rulers; but the rulers of 
Germany themselves knew all the while what concrete 
plans, what well advanced intrigues lay back of what the 
professors and the writers were saying, and were glad to 
go forward unmolested, filling the thrones of Balkan states 
with German princes, putting German officers at the service 
of Turkey to drill her armies and make interest with her 
government, developing plans of sedition and rebellion in 
India and Egypt, setting their fires in Persia. The demands 
made by Austria upon Servia were a mere single step in a 
plan which compassed Europe and Asia, from Berlin to 
Bagdad. They hoped those demands might not arouse Eu- 
rope, but they meant to press them whether they did or not, 
for they thought themselves ready for the final issue of 
arms. 

Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military 
power and political control across the very centre of Eu- 
rope and beyond the Mediterranean into the heart of Asia ; 
and Austria-Hungary was to be as much their tool and 
pawn as Servia or Bulgaria or Turkey or the ponderous 
states of the East. Austria-Hungary, indeed, was to be- 
come part of the central German Empire, absorbed and 



404 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

dominated by the same forces and influences that had orig- 
inally cemented the German states themselves. The dream 
had its heart at Berlin. It could have had a heart nowhere 
else! It rejected the idea of solidarity of race entirely. 
The choice of peoples played no part in it at all. It con- 
templated binding together racial and political units which 
could be kept together only by force, — Czechs, Magyars, 
Croats, Serbs, Roumanians, Turks, Armenians, — the proud 
states of Bohemia and Hungary, the stout little common- 
wealths of the Balkans, the indomitable Turks, the subtile 
peoples of the East. These peoples did not wish to be 
united. They ardently desired to direct their own affairs, 
would be satisfied only by undisputed independence. They 
could be kept quiet only by the presence or the constant 
threat of armed men. They would live under a common 
power only by sheer compulsion and await the day of rev- 
olution. But the German military statesmen had reckoned 
with all that and were ready to deal with it in their own 
way. 

And they have actually carried the greater part of that 
amazing plan into execution ! Look how things stand. 
Austria is at their mercy. It has acted, not upon its own 
initiative or upon the choice of its own people, but at Ber- 
lin's dictation ever since the war began. Its people now de- 
sire peace, but cannot have it until leave is granted from 
Berlin. The so-called Central Powers are in fact but a 
single Power. Servia is at its mercy, should its hands be 
but for a moment freed. Bulgaria has consented to its will, 
and Roumania is overrun. The Turkish armies, which 
Germans trained, are serving Germany, certainly not them- 
selves, and the guns of German \varships lying in the har- 
bour at Constantinople remind Turkish statesmen every 
day that they have no choice but to take their orders from 



THE CASE AGAINST GERMANY 40S 

Berlin. From Hamburg to the Persian Gulf the net is 
spread. 

Is it not easy to understand the eagerness for peace that 
has been manifested from Berlin ever since the snare was 
set and sprung? Peace, peace, peace has been the talk of 
her Foreign Office for now a year and more ; not peace upon 
her own initiative, but upon the initiative of the nations 
over which she now deems herself to hold the advantage. 
A little of the talk has been public, but most of it has been 
private. Through all sorts of channels it has come to me, 
and in all sorts of guises, but never with the terms disclosed 
which the German Government would be willing to accept. 
That government has other valuable pawns in its hands be- 
sides those I have mentioned. It still holds a valuable part 
of France, though with slowly relaxing grasp, and practically 
the whole of Belgium. Its armies press close upon Russia 
and overrun Poland at their will. It cannot go further; 
it dare not go back. It wishes to close its bargain before it 
is too late and it has little left to offer for the pound of flesh 
it will demand. 

The military masters under whom Germany is bleeding 
see very clearly to what point Fate has brought them. If 
they fall back or are forced back an inch, their power both 
abroad and at home will fall to pieces like a house of cards. 
It is their power at home they are thinking about now more 
than their power abroad. It is that power which is trem- 
bling under their very feet ; and deep fear has entered their 
hearts. They have but one chance to perpetuate their mili- 
tary power or even their controlling political influence. If 
they can secure peace now with the immense advantages still 
in their hands which they have up to this point apparently 
gained, they will have justified themselves before the Ger- 
man people : they will have gained by force what they prom- 



4o6 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

ised to gain by it : an immense expansion of German power, 
an immense enlargement of German industrial and commer- 
cial opportunities. Their prestige will be secure, and with 
their prestige their political power. If they fail, their peo- 
ple will thrust them aside ; a government accountable to the 
people themselves will be set up in Germany as it has been 
in England, in the United States, in France, and in all the 
great countries of the modern time except Germany. If 
they succeed they are safe and Germany and the world are 
undone ; if they fail Germany is saved and the world will 
be at peace. If they succeed, America will fall within 
the menace. We and all the rest of the world must re- 
main armed, as they will remain, and must make ready 
for the next step in their aggression; if they fail, the 
world may unite for peace and Germany may be of the 
union. 

Do you not now understand the new intrigue, the intrigue 
for peace, and why the masters of Germany do not hesitate 
to use any agency that promises to effect their purpose, the 
deceit of the nations? Their present particular aim is to de- 
ceive all those who throughout the world stand for the 
rights of peoples and the self-government of nations; for 
they see what immense strength the forces of justice and of 
liberalism are gathering out of this war. They are employ- 
ing liberals in their enterprise. They are using men, in 
Germany and without, as their spokesmen whom they have 
hitherto despised and oppressed, using them for their own 
destruction, — socialists, the leaders of labour, the thinkers 
they have hitherto sought to silence. Let them once suc- 
ceed and these men, now their tools, will be ground to 
powder beneath the weight of the great military empire they 
will have set up; the revolutionists in Russia will be cut off 
from all succour or cooperation in western Europe and a 
counter revolution fostered and supported ; Germany herself 



THE CASE AGAINST GERMANY 407 

will lose her chance of freedom; and all Europe will arm 
for the next, the final struggle. 

The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted in 
this country than in Russia and in every country in Europe 
to which the agents and dupes of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment can get access. That government has many spokes- 
men here, in places high and low. They have learned dis- 
cretion. They keep within the law. It is opinion they ut- 
ter now, not sedition. They proclaim the liberal purposes 
of their masters ; declare this a foreign war which can 
touch America with no danger to either her lands or her 
institutions ; set England at the center of the stage and talk 
of her ambition to assert economic dominion throughout the 
world ; appeal to our ancient tradition of isolation in the 
politics of the nations ; and seek to undermine the govern- 
ment with false professions of loyalty to its principles. 

But they will make no headway. The false betray them- 
selves always in every accent. It is only friends and parti- 
sans of the German Government whom we have already 
identified who utter these thinly disguised disloyalties. 
The facts are patent to all the world, and nowhere are they 
more plainly seen than in the United States, where we are 
accustomed to deal with facts and not with sophistries ; and 
the great fact that stands out above all the rest is that this 
is a People's War, a war for freedom and justice and self- 
government amongst all the nations of the world, a war to 
make the world safe for the peoples who live upon it and 
have made it their own, the German people themselves in- 
cluded ; and that with us rests the choice to break through 
all these hypocrisies and patent cheats and masks of brute 
force and help set the world free, or else stand aside and 
let it be dominated a long age through by sheer weight of 
arms and the arbitrary choices of self-constituted masters, 
by the nation which can maintain the biggest armies and 



4o8 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

the most irresistible armaments, — a power to which the 
world has afforded no parallel and in the face of which po- 
litical freedom must wither and perish. 

For us there is but one choice. We have made it. Woe 
be to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our 
way in this day of high resolution when every principle we 
hold dearest is to be vindicated and made secure for the sal- 
vation of the nations. We are ready to plead at the bar of 
history, and our flag shall wear a new lustre. Once more 
we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the great 
faith to which we were born, and a new glory shall shine in 
the face of our people. 



HOW THE WAR MAY BE ENDED 

90. Communication of Secretary Lansing to Pope 
Benedict XV. August 2'j, ic)iy ^ 

(Official Bulletin, Washington, August 29, 1917) 

Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened by 
this terrible war must be touched by this moving appeal 
of His Holiness the Pope, must feel the dignity and force of 
the humane and generous motives which prompted it, and 
must fervently wish that we might take the path of peace 
he so persuasively points out. But it would be folly to take 
it if it does not in fact lead to the goal he proposes. Our 
response must be based upon the stern facts and upon noth- 
ing else. It is not a mere cessation of arms he desires ; it 
is a stable and enduring peace. This agony must not be gone 
through with again, and it must be a matter of very sober 
judgment what will insure us against it. 

His Holiness in substance proposes that we return to the 

1 A reply to the note of Pope Benedict XV, dated August i, 1917, 
addressed to the belligerents. For text see Current History, New 
York Times, VI, 392. 



HOW THE WAR MAY BE ENDED 409 

status quo ante helium, and that then there be a general 
condonation, disarmament, and a concert of nations, based 
upon an acceptance of the principle of arbitration ; that by a 
similar concert freedom of the seas be estabHshed ; and that 
the territorial claims of France and Italy, the perplexing 
problems of the Balkan states, and the restitution of Poland 
be left to such conciliatory adjustments as may be possible 
in the new temper of such a peace, due regard being paid to 
the aspirations of the peoples whose political fortunes and 
affiliations will be involved. 

It is manifest that no part of this program can be suc- 
cessfully carried out unless the restitution of the status quo 
ante furnishes a firm and satisfactory basis for it. The ob- 
ject of this war is to deliver the free peoples of the world 
from the menace and the actual power of a vast military 
establishment controlled by an irresponsible government 
which, having secretly planned to dominate the world, pro- 
ceeded to carry the plan out without regard either to the 
sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established prac- 
tices and long-cherished principles of international action 
and honor ; which chose its own time for the war ; de- 
livered its blow fiercely and suddenly ; stopped at no barrier 
either of law or of mercy; swept a whole continent within 
the tide of blood — not the blood of soldiers only, but the 
blood of innocent women and children also, and of the 
helpless poor; and now stands balked, but not defeated, 
the enemy of four-fifths of the world. This power is not 
the German people. It is the ruthless master of the German 
people. It is no business of ours how that great people came 
under its control or submitted with temporary zest to the 
domination of its purpose ; but it is our business to see to it 
that the history of the rest of the world is no longer left to 
its handling. 

To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the 



410 STATEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION 

plan proposed by His Holiness the Pope, would, so far as we 
can see, involve a recuperation of its strength and a re- 
newal of its policy; would make it necessary to create a 
permanent hostile combination of nations against the German 
people, who are its instruments ; and would result in abandon- 
ing the new-born Russia to the intrigue, the manifold subtle 
interference and the certain counter-revolution which would 
be attempted by all the malign influences to which the Ger- 
man Government has of late accustomed the world. Can 
peace be based upon a restitution of its power or upon any 
word of honor it could pledge in a treaty of settlement 
and accommodation ? 

Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see, if they 
never saw before, that no peace can rest securely upon po- 
litical or economic restrictions meant to benefit some nations 
and cripple or embarrass others, upon vindictive action of 
any sort or any kind of revenge or deliberate injury. The 
American people have suffered intolerable wrongs at the 
hands of the Imperial German Government, but they de- 
sire no reprisal upon the German people, who have them- 
selves suffered all things in this war, which they did not 
choose. They believe that peace should rest upon the rights 
of peoples, not the rights of governments — the rights of 
peoples great or small, weak or powerful — their equal right 
to freedom and security and self-government, and to a par- 
ticipation upon fair terms in the economic opportunities of 
the world, the German people of course included if they 
will accept equality and not seek domination. 

The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Is it 
based upon the faith of all the peoples involved, or merely 
upon the word of an ambitious and intriguing government, 
on the one hand, and of a group of free peoples, on the 
other? This is a test which goes to the root of the matter; 
and it is the test which must be applied. -o 



HOW THE WAR MAY BE ENDED 411 

The purposes of the United States in this war are known 
to the whole world — to every people to whom the truth 
has been permitted to come. They do not need to be stated 
again. We seek no material advantage of any kind. We 
believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war by the 
furious and brutal power of the Imperial German Govern- 
ment ought to be repaired, but not at the expense of the 
sovereignty of any people — rather a vindication of the 
sovereignty both of those that are weak and those that are 
strong. Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires, 
the establishment of selfish and exclusive economic leagues, 
we deem inexpedient and in the end worse than futile — no 
proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of all for an en- 
during peace. That must be based upon justice and fair- 
ness and the common rights of mankind. 

We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Ger- 
many as a guarantee of anything that is to endure, unless 
explicitly supported by such conclusive evidence of the will 
and purpose of the German people themselves as the other 
peoples of the world would be justified in accepting. With- 
out such guarantees treaties of settlement, agreements for 
disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration in the place 
of force, territorial adjustments, reconstitutions of small 
nations, if made with the German Government, no man, 
no nation could now depend on. We must await some new 
evidence of the purposes of the great peoples of the central 
powers. God grant it may be given soon, and in a way to 
restore the confidence of all peoples everywhere in the faith 
of nations and the possibility of a covenanted peace. 



INDEX 



A. B. C. powers, President Wil- 
son's acceptance of mediation 
of, in Mexican emergency, 34- 
36; failure of mediation con- 
ference, 38 ; treaties providing 
for arbitration signed with, 
41 ; text of communication by 
Secretary Bryan, accepting of- 
fer of mediation, 213-214. 

"America first" speech by Pres- 
ident Wilson (April 20, 1915), 
59-60 ; extract from text of 
address, 249-254. 

American Federation of Labour, 
address at dedication of head- 
quarters (July 4, 1916), 114- 
115; extract from, 338. 

American Institute of Inter- 
national Law, first convention 
of, 82-83 ; aims and purposes 
of, 83 n. 

Americanism, President's ad- 
dress on the meaning of 
("Too proud to fight" 
speech), 66-67, 256-261; ad- 
dress on true versus hyphen- 
ated, 216-219. 

Anderson, C. P., article on 
" Freedom of the Seas," cited, 
65 n. 

Anti-alien land legislation in 
California, President urges au- 
thorities not to enact, 10-14; 
text of telegram to Governor 
Johnson, 182-183; Secretary 
Bryan's telegram to Governor, 
184 ; administration's commu- 
nications to Japanese ambassa- 
dor concerning, 184-188. 

413 



Appam, case of the, 125 n. 

Arabic, sinking of the, 72; notes 
dealing with case of the, yz n. 

Arbitration, sentiment for, dur- 
ing Taft administration, 22; 
further steps in progress 
toward, made by Wilson ad- 
ministration, 22-23 ; treaties of, 
signed with Argentina, Brazil, 
and Chile, 41 ; ratification of 
eighteen treaties of, within 
two weeks of outbreak of Eu- 
ropean war, 48 ; President 
Wilson's belief in, as best 
means of composing interna- 
tional agreements, 149-150, 

154. 

Arlington Cemetery, address at 
(Memorial Day, 1916), 109, 
329-331 ; address at (Memorial 
Day, 1917), 145, 397-398. 

Armed merchantmen, controv- 
ersy with Germany over, 85- 
95 ; announcement of admin- 
istration (March, 1916) fol- 
lowing rejection of Lansing 
proposals, 97-98; extract from 
note sent by Secretary Lan- 
sing to Entente allies concern- 
ing, 302-306; extract from let- 
ter by President to Senator 
Stone, defending right of 
American citzens to travel on, 
309-310; extract from memo- 
randum defining status of, is- 
sued by Department of State 
(March 25, 1916), 314-315. 

Arming of merchant ships, Pres- 
ident's address to Congress 



414 



INDEX 



requesting authority for the, 
375-380. 

Arms, raising of embargo on 
shipment of, into Mexico 
(January, 1914), 26, 207; res- 
toration of embargo on, 34; 
embargo on shipment of, to 
Great Britain requested by 
Germany, 61 ; attitude of Pres- 
ident Wilson regarding ship- 
ment of, 61-62. 

Army, President's plans for the, 
as set forth in preparedness 
address before Manhattan 
Club (November 4, 19^5). 11- 
78, 289-290. 

Associated Advertising Clubs, 
address before (Philadelphia. 
June 29, 1916). 113. 335-336.^ 

Associated Press. President's 
address to members of (April 
20, 191 5). 59-60, 249-254. 

Austria, Wilson administration 
charged with discrimination 
against Germany and, 52-53 J 
recall of ambassador of, 11\ 
extract from Secretary Bry- 
an's letter to Senator Stone, 
denying charges of discrimi- 
nation against, 240-241 ; not 
included in President's request 
to Congress for declaration of 
war (April 2. 1917). 391- 

Bankers, American, and loans to 
China, 9-10. 181-182. 

Basic principles of American 
policy, as set forth in Presi- 
dent's second inaugural ad- 
dress, 142, 380-382. 

Bean, R., analysis of President's 
speaking tour of February, 
1916, by, 92 n. 

Belgian delegation, statement of 
President to, concerning atti- 
tude of United States toward 



violations of rules of warfare, 
227-228. 

Belgium, President Wilson's re- 
frainment from protest upon 
invasion of, 47-48; President's 
pledge concerning (June 18, 
1917), 147. 

Blythe, Samuel, interview with 
President Wilson, cited, ^Z- 

Boy-Ed. Karl, recall of, ']']. 

Brazil, favourable response re- 
ceived from, to world peace 
plan (1913), 12 n. See A. B. C. 
powers. 

Bryan, Secretary, plan for world 
peace laid before diplomats at 
Wasliington by, 12; causes of 
resignation of, 71 ; adverse 
comment by, on " peace with- 
out victory" address, 137 n.; 
statement by, concerning ad- 
ministration's plans for inter- 
national peace, 183-184 ; ex- 
tract from communication to 
Great Britain protesting 
against policy toward neutral 
shipping, 236-238. 

Buenos Aires, congress of Amer- 
ican republics at, resulting in 
creation of Pan-American In- 
ternational High Commission, 
83 n. 
Burchard, A., article by, cited, 
125 n. 

California, question of Japanese 
ownership of land in, 10-14; 
text of President's telegram to 
Governor Johnson, 182-183; 
Secretary Bryan's telegram, 
184; text of administration's 
communications to Japanese 
ambassador concerning legis- 
lation in, 184-188. 

Caribbean policy, development 
of, in 1916, 116-118. 



INDEX 



415 



Carranza, General, leader of 
Constitutional faction in Mex- 
ico, 2^ ; protests against Amer- 
ican occupation of Vera Cruz, 
34; offer of mediation by 
A. B. C. powers accepted by, 
36; recognition of government 
of (October 9, 1915), 74; em- 
barrassments attending Wash- 
ington government's attempts 
to deal with (1916), 96-97; un- 
friendly attitude of, shown by 
protests regarding Pershing 
expedition, 105-106; Carrizal 
incident, 106 ; more concilia- 
tory attitude adopted by, 114. 

Carrizal, attack by Carranza on 
American force at, 106. 

Central America, President Wil- 
son on dangers involved in 
concessions obtained by for- 
eign companies in, 8, 20-21, 
199-200; statement by Presi- 
dent of administration's atti- 
tude toward republics of. 179- 
180. 

China, President Wilson's state- 
ment concerning Six Power 
loan to, and attitude of admin- 
istration toward, 9-10, 181- 
182 ; revolution in, and forma- 
tion of Republican govern- 
ment, 10 n. ; arbitration treaty 
signed with (September, 1914), 

43. 

Cincinnati address (October 26, 
1916), 127-128, 355-356. 

Clarke amendment to Jones bill, 
119. 

Cleveland, Ohio, extract from 
preparedness speech by Presi- 
dent at, 306-309. 

Colombia, strained relations 
with, at opening of Wilson ad- 
ministration (1912), 5; Taft 
administration's efforts to set- 



tle controversy with, 5 n. ; Wil- 
son policy toward, 116-118; 
treaty with, offering repara- 
tion for secession of Panama, 
ii8n. 

Congress Hall, Philadelphia, ad- 
dress (October 25, 1913), 20; 
extract from, 197-198. 

Coudert, F. R., "The Appam 
Case," cited, 125 n. 

Cuba, policy of Wilson adminis- 
tration toward, 116-118. 

Currency, reference to, by Pres- 
ident Wilson, in first inaug- 
ural address, 6. 

Ciishing, shelling of the, by aero- 
plane, 65. 

Danish West Indies, significance 
of purchase of, 117-118. 

Daughters of American Revolu- 
tion, address to (April 17, 
1916), 99-100, 315-316. 

Davenport, F. M., " President 
Wilson's Foreign Policy," 
cited, 105. 

Declaration of London, accept- 
ance of laws of naval war- 
fare laid down in, proposed by 
President Wilson, 44; status 
of, in 1914, 45 ; causes leading 
to withdrawal of suggestions 
made by United States, 49. 

Deering, J. H., General Lazvs of 
California, cited, 11. 

Defence, awakening of Presi- 
dent Wilson to necessity for, 
77 ; dealt with in Manhattan 
Club address (November 4, 
1915), 78-79, 287-293; program 
of preparedness for national, 
proposed in President's third 
annual message, 80-82, 293-300. 
See Preparedness. 

Democracy, President Wilson's 
fundamental belief in, and its 



4i6 



INDEX 



effects on his policy, 149-152. 

Democratic party, President's 
view of function of, as stated 
in first inaugural address, 6; 
procedure relative to Philip- 
pine Islands in platforms of, 
19; points of approach of for- 
eign policy of, to that of Re- 
publican party, 116-119. 

Deutschland, British contention 
concerning the, 125 n. 

"Dollar diplomacy," Knox's, 4; 
discussion of, in President's 
address at Philadelphia (July 
4, 1914), 220-221. 

Dominican Republic, Wilson pol- 
icy toward, 116-118. 

Dumba, Ambassador, recall of 
77- 

Eliot, Giarles W.. cited on Pres- 
ident Wilson's contributions to 
sound international policies 
and conduct. 42. 

Entangling alliances, Washing- 
ton's reason for warning 
against, 37: discussed in Pres- 
ident's Arlington Cemetery ad- 
dress, 109. 216-217. 

Equality of nations, a funda- 
mental belief of President Wil- 
son's, 149; effect of belief in, 
on foreign policy, 153. 

European war, attitude of Amer- 
ica upon outbreak of, 44-49 ; 
American attitude toward 
British policy, 49-50 : Presi- 
dent's plans and policies as 
revealed in addresses and mes- 
sage to Congress (1914), 50- 
52; President's statements as 
to impossibility of discovering 
causes of, 350. 355 ; President's 
address upon necessity of 
America entering into, 382- 
393 J purposes of United States 



in the, stated in President's 
letter to Representative Heflin, 
396-397; method of ending the, 
as set forth in reply to the 
Pope, 408-411. 



Falaba, sinking of the, 65. 

Far East, President Wilson's 

statement concerning policy 

toward (i9i3),9-io. 
Fenwick, C. G., article on " The 

Freedom of the Seas," cited, 

65. 

Finch, G. A., articles by, cited, 
84. 96. 

Flag Day address (June 14. 
191 7), 146; text of. 400-408. 

Fletcher, H. P., appointed am- 
bassador to Mexico, 142 n. 

Foreign policy, not referred to, 
in President Wilson's first in- 
augural address, 3 ; Demo- 
cratic party on record as op- 
posed to that of Republican 
predecessors, 4; first issues of, 
to be dealt with by Wilson ad- 
ministration, 5-6; conditions in 
Latin America and the Far 
East, 6-10; the Japanese land 
question in California, 10-14; 
conditions in Mexico, 14-18; 
outHning by President of pol- 
icy regarding Philippines and 
other dependencies, 19-20; 
general policy as outlined in 
speech before Southern Com- 
mercial Congress, 20-21 ; plans 
for furthering international 
peace, 22-23 ; working out of 
policy in ^Mexico, 24 ff. ; treat- 
ment of Panama Canal tolls 
controversy. 28-30; idealism 
in President's policy, 40-42 ; 
maintenance of neutrality in 
European war, 44-52; attitude 



INDEX 



417 



toward British shipping pol- 
icy, 49-50, 61-62, 75-76, 98- 
99; beginning of difficulties 
with Germany, 52-58; insist- 
ence by President upon neu- 
trality in word and deed, 58- 
62 ; the German submarine 
issue, 64-73 ; outcome of pol- 
icy pursued toward Mexico, 
73-75 ; beginning of prepared- 
ness program, 80-95 ; crisis 
reached in relations with Ger- 
many, 99-105 ; continued policy 
of restraint toward Mexico, 
95-97, 105-107 ; new concep- 
tion of United States as a 
world power, 111-115; trend 
of Wilson administration to- 
ward policy of Republican 
predecessors, 116-119; Presi- 
dent's defence of his policy 
and expressed satisfaction 
with, 120-122; an international 
purpose in, 122-129; events 
and issues leading to Amer- 
ica's entrance into the war, 
130-148; review of elements 
composing President's foreign 
policy, 149 ff. ; table of impor- 
tant events in American for- 
eign relations, 161-175; Pres- 
ident's address of July 4, 1914, 
on ideals and purposes of pol- 
icy, 219-225; text of annual 
message to Congress setting 
forth general principles of, 
293-300 ; the true bases of, as 
stated by President (February 
26, 1916), 310-312; effect of 
foreign affairs upon, 324; text 
of President's address accept- 
ing second nomination and re- 
viewing four years of foreign 
policy, 342-348; basic princi- 
ples of American foreign pol- 
icy, as dealt with in Presi- 



dent's second' inaugural ad- 
dress, 380-382. 

Foreign relations, state of, at 
opening of Wilson's adminis- 
tration, 3-6. 

Foreign trade, address concern- 
ing service of America in, 115, 
338-342. 

Foundations of a world peace, 
set forth in President's ad- 
dress to Senate (January 22, 

1917), 137- Z^^-Z7^' 

France, favourable response re- 
ceived from, to world peace 
plan (1913), 12 n.; arbitration 
treaty signed with (Septem- 
ber, 1914), 48; correspondence 
with Great Britain and, over 
interference with mails, 98-99. 

Freedom of the seas. President 
Wilson's conception of, 136- 
137, 362-370. 

Funston, General, orders given 
to, following Villa raid, 96. 

Gamboa, F., Secretary for For- 
eign Affairs in Mexico, reply 
of, to Lind's proposals, 192 n. 

George, Lloyd, predicts forma- 
tion of league of peace, 134. 

Germany, informal proposal 
made by President to, looking 
to peace, 48 ; beginning of dif- 
ficulties with, after outbreak 
of European war, 52-53; 
United States charged with 
discrimination against, 53 ; re- 
ply by Secretary Bryan to 
charges of discrimination, 53- 
54, 240-241 ; proclamation by, 
of war zone about British Isles, 
and warning given to neutrals, 
54-55 ; reply of American gov- 
ernment to threat of submarine 
campaign by, 55-56; further 
exchange of notes between 



4i8 



INDEX 



United States and, 56-58 ; dis- 
satisfaction in United States 
with methods of propaganda 
of, 62 ; submarine campaign of, 
in spring of 1915, 64-65 ; break 
with, expected after Lusitania 
sinking, 65-66: exchange of 
notes with, after Lusitania 
sinking, 70-73 ; continuance of 
propaganda by, in United 
States, in summer and fall of 
1915. 76-77; recall of diplo- 
matic representatives of, in 
America, 77; issue of Presi- 
dent's diplomatic controversy 
with, viewed as successful. 79; 
armed merchantmen contro- 
versy with, 85-95 ; deliberate 
embarrassment by, of effcyrts 
of United States to safeguard 
neutral rights, 93 ; events lead- 
ing to crisis in relations with, 
99-105 ; brings on crisis by 
adopting policy of sinking all 
vessels in barred sea zone, 137- 
138; break in diplomatic rela- 
tions with, 138; proposals 
made by, to Mexico, 141-142; 
necessity of declaring war 
upon, indicated by President, 
143 : deeper purpose of the 
course taken against, shown in 
President's reply to the Pope, 
148; effect of President's 
fundamental belief in democ- 
racy in leading to his distinc- 
tion between government and 
people of. 152-153; statement 
of President to Emperor of 
(September 16 1914), concern- 
ing attitude of United States 
toward violations of rules of 
warfare, 227-228 ; extract 
from Secretary , Bryan's letter 
to Senator Stone, denying 
charges of discrimination 



against, 240-241 ; extracts from 
Secretary Bryan's communica- 
tions to, concerning submarine 
warfare, 243-247 ; extract from 
Secretary Bryan's reply to 
ambassador's note on Ameri- 
can attitude respecting British 
behaviour, 254-256 ; extract 
from Sussex ultimatum, 316- 
321 ; President's address to 
Congress on relations with 
(April 19, 1916), 321-322; 
President's address to Con- 
gress upon severance of dip- 
lomatic relations with, 370- 
375 ; President's address to 
Congress asking it to declare 
existence of state of war with, 
3S2-3g^ ; the case against, as 
stated in President's Flag Day 
address (June 14, 1917), 400- 
408. 
Gore and T^IcLemore resolutions, 

93-94- 

Grain Dealers' National Associa- 
tion, speech before (September 
25, 1916), 123, 349-350. 

Great Britain, protest of, con- 
cerning Panama Canal tolls 
question, 5 ; favourable re- 
sponse received from, to world 
peace plan (1913), 12 n. ; arbi- 
tration treaty with, renewed, 
12 n.; rumour of pressure 
brought to bear by, concerning 
^lexico, 27-28, 29 ; arbitration 
treaty signed with (September, 
1914), 48; American attitude 
toward shipping policy of 49- 
50; action by America against, 
requested by German3% 61 ; 
stand taken by Wilson admin- 
istration regardincr. 61-62; sea 
power favoured by refusal of 
American government to press 
cases against, 62; continued 



INDEX 



419 



controversy with, over Orders 
in Council, 75-/6; issue raised 
by arming of merchantmen by, 
88-89; exchange of notes with, 
over interference with mails, 
98-99 ; particular grievances 
against, in 1916, ii6n. ; extract 
from Secretary Bryan's com- 
munication to, protesting 
against policy toward neutral 
shipping (December 26, 1914), 
236-238; Secretary Bryan's 
note to Germany and, suggest- 
ing a modus vivendi in naval 
warfare, 245-247 ; note of Sec- 
retary Lansing to, protesting 
against British interference 
with shipping and champion- 
ing neutral rights, 286-287. 

Grey, Sir Edward, announce- 
ment of, concerning Mexico, 28. 

Gridiron Club, President Wil- 
son's address before (Febru- 
ary 26, 1916), 95, 310-312. 

Gulflight, sinking of the, 65. 

Haiti, landing of United States 
marines in (January, 1914), 
27 n. ; conditions of treaty with 
(1915), 84; military govern- 
ment established in, by United 
States, Ii6n. ; advantage to 
United States from protector- 
ate over, 118. 

Harrison, Governor-General, 

message from President Wil- 
son to citizens of Philippine 
Islands delivered by (1913), 
19. 

Harvey, George, article entitled 
'• We Appeal to the President " 
by, cited, 27 n, 

Hawaii, greater powers in self- 
government asked for, in 
President's message of Decem- 
ber, 1913, 25 n. 



Heflin, Representative, letter of 
President to (May 22, 1917), 

145, 396-397. 

"He has kept us out of war" 
argument not stressed by 
President himself, 124. 

Hesperian, sinking of the, y2 n. 

Higgins, A. P., article on 
" Armed Merchant Ships," 
cited, 88. 

Huerta, General, refusal of 
President Wilson to recognize 
as ruler of Mexico, 7 ; steps 
following upon refusal of, to 
recognize American ambassa- 
dor, 14; rejection by, of pro- 
posals submitted through John 
Lind, 15, 192; President Wil- 
son's statement, 15-18, 188- 
195 ; warnings sent to, by 
Washington government, 18; 
development of President's 
policy toward, 24-28; course 
of, following Tampico inci- 
dent, 31-33; offer of media- 
tion by A. B. C. powers ac- 
cepted by, 36; downfall of, 
and its significance, 41 ; 
President's address dealing 
with, after Tampico affair, 
209-213. 



Idealism, President Wilson's 
policy of, 39-40, 219-225, 

Ideals of service for the navy. 
President's address on, 69-70, 
266-268. 

Immigration bill, extract from 
message of President concern- 
ing (January 28, 1915), 241- 

243- 
Importance of public opinion, 
emphasized by President, 150- 

Important events in American 



420 



INDEX 



foreign relations, table of, i6i- 

175. 

Indianapolis address (October 
12, 1916), 126-127, 352-353- 

Interference with mails, corre- 
spondence with Allies regard- 
ing, 98-99- 

International law, insistence of 
Wilson administration upon 
supremacy of, at outbreak of 
European war, 48-49, 50 ff., 
62; idea of adherence to, in 
the " Too proud to fight " 
speech, 66-67; arming of mer- 
chantmen permitted by, 88; 
President's address (October 
20, 1914), on the basis of, 228- 
230. 

International Law, American In- 
stitute of, 82-83. 

International peace, plans of 
Wilson administration for, 
presented to diplomatic corps 
in Washington, 22-23, 183-184. 

International relations, justice 
in, stressed by President (June 
29, 1916), 335-336. 

Italy, favourable response re- 
ceived from, to world peace 
plan (1913), I2n. 

lyenaga, Toyokichi, paper by, 
cited, 14 n. 

Japan, question of ownership of 
land in California by natives 
of, 10-14, 182-183, 184-188; re- 
newal of general arbitration 
treaty with, 13; continuance of 
California land issue with, 38; 
plans for, in German proposals 
to Mexico, 141-142; text of 
communications of Secretary 
Bryan to ambassador of, 184- 
186. 

Jews, threatened interruption of 
trade relations with Russia 



because of discrimination 
against, 6. 

Johnson, Governor, bill against 
Japanese ownership of land in 
California signed by, 11. 

Jones, C. L., Caribbean Interests 
of the United States, cited, 84. 

Jones bill, passage of, 119; pro- 
visions of, ii9n. 

Justice in international relations, 
extract from President's ad- 
dress concerning, 335-336. 

Knapp, Captain, military occupa- 
tion of Dominican Republic by, 
ii6n. 

Knox, Secretary, " dollar diplo- 
macy " of, 4. 

Kraus. Herbert, " What Euro- 
pean Countries Think of the 
Monroe Doctrine," cited, 16 n. 



Lansing, Robert, appointed 
Secretary of State, 71 ; quoted 
on the meaning of the imme- 
diate cause of our war with 
Germany, 147-148; communi- 
cation of August 27, 1917, in 
reply to note of the Pope's, 
408-411. 

Latane, J. H., articles by, cited, 
118, 137 n. ^ 

Latin America, indication by 
President Wilson of policy 
toward, 6-9; general policy of 
Wilson administration con- 
cerning, outlined, 20-21 ; text 
of statement announcing ad- 
ministration's attitude toward, 
179-180 ; elaboration of ad- 
ministration's policy respect- 
ing, in Mobile address, 199- 
202; development of trade 
with, dealt with in message to 
congress (December 8, 1914), 



INDEX 



421 



231-232; representatives of, 
join with Secretary Lansing in 
appeal to leaders of warring 
factions in Mexico, 280-282. 
See A. B. C. powers. 

League of nations, advocated by 
President Wilson, 108, 128, 
325-329; mentioned in cam- 
paign speech (October 26, 
1916), 356; suggested in com- 
munication sent to the nations 
at war (December 18, 1916), 
359-362. 

League to Enforce Peace, Presi- 
dent's address before (May 27, 
1916), 107-109; extract from 
President's address, 325-329. 

League to preserve peace, pre- 
dicted by Lloyd George, 134. 

Lincoln Memorial speech (Sep- 
tember 4, 1916), 122-123, 349. 

Lind, John, sent as special agent 
to Mexico, 14-15 ; statement 
by President Wilson resultant 
upon failure of mission of, 
18; President's conference 
with in January, 1914, previ- 
ous to raising of embargo on 
shipment of arms to IMexico, 
26 n.; failure of mission and 
departure from Mexico, 30; 
President's statement regard 
ing sending of, to Mexico 
191-192. 

Lippmann, Walter, exposition of 
President Wilson's course by 
147 n. 

Literacy test for immigrants 
President's remarks concern 
ing, 242. 

Lusitanta, sinking of the, 65 ; 
proposals for settlement of 
case of, submitted by Ger- 
many, 87 ; wherein Sussex case 
differed from that of, 102-103; 
text of first note on, 261-266; 



second note on, 270-276; third 
note on, 276-280. 

McLemore, Jeff, joint author 
with Senator Gore of resolu- 
tions forbidding Americans 
from travelling on armed 
merchantmen, 93-94. 

Madero, problem thrust upon 
United States by assassination 
of, 7. 

Mails, protest against British 
and French interference with, 
98-99- 

Manhattan Club address (No- 
vember 4, 1915), 77-78; ex- 
tract from text of, 287-293. 

Maritime warfare. President's 
stand regarding rules of, 53. 

Mayo, Rear-Admiral H. T., in 
command at Tampico, 31. 

Memorial Day address (1916), 
109, 329-331; (1917), 145, 397- 
398. _ ^ 

Mexico, indication given by 
President Wilson of policy 
toward (1913), 6-9; refusal of 
Huerta to recognize American 
ambassador, 14; John Lind 
sent as special agent to, 14-15; 
President Wilson's statement 
upon failure of Lind's mission, 
15-18, 188-195 ; announcement 
of future course of Wilson ad- 
ministration regarding, 18; de- 
velopment of policy of ad- 
ministration toward, 24-28; 
raising of embargo on ship- 
ment of arms into, 26; denial 
by President of rumour of 
European interference in Mex- 
ican policy, 27-28 ; change in 
policy toward, forced by oc- 
currences at Tampico, 30-34; 
restoration of embargo on 
shipment of arms into, 34; 



422 



INDEX 



mediation of A. B. C. powers, 
34-36 ; statement of general 
policy of Wilson administra- 
tion, 36-40; 215-216; failure of 
mediation conference, 38; sig- 
nificance of downfall of 
Huerta, in its bearing on Wil- 
son policies, 41 ; vindication of 
President's policy toward, 41- 
42; events in, in 1915, 72,', 
recognition of Carranza gov- 
ernment, 74 ; Santa Ysabcl 
massacre and Villa raid, 95-96; 
Pershing force in, 96; Pres- 
ident Wilson's statement con- 
cerning " sinister and unscru- 
pulous influences " at work, 
96-97, 312-314; unfriendly at- 
titude of Carranza, especially 
concerning Pershing expedi- 
tion, 105-106; Carrizal inci- 
dent, 106; rebuke administered 
by President to advocates of 
actual conquest in, 113, 335- 
336; more conciliatory attitude 
adopted by Carranza, 114: 
President's defence of policy 
respecting, in speech accepting 
nomination for second term, 
120-121 ; revelation of German 
proposals to, 141-142 ; condi- 
tion of affairs in February, 
1917, between United States 
and, 142 n.; effect of Presi- 
dent's fundamental belief in 
democracy on policy toward, 
152; text of instructions given 
to John Lind by President, 
191-192; relations of United 
States with, as dealt with in 
President's second annual mes- 
sage to Congress, 204-205 ; text 
of President's address to Con- 
gress on relations with, follow- 
ing Tampico affair, 209-213; 
extract from President's ad- 



dress (January 8, 1915), con- 
cerning self-government in, 
239-240; text of President's 
note to warring factions in, 
advising leaders to come to an 
early agreement (June 2, 
1915), 268-270; text of joint 
appeal by Secretary Lansing 
and representatives of South 
American states to leaders of 
factions in, 280-282 ; Presi- 
dent's statement as to effects 
of rumour on policy toward, 

312-314- 
Mobile address (October 27, 

1913), 20-21; extract from, 

199-202. 
Monroe Doctrine, statement of 

President Wilson's conception 

of, 81 ; responsibilities imposed 

upon United States by, 117, 

300-301. 
Moore, J. B., articles by, cited, 

8n., 14. 

National defence. See Defence. 

National Press Club address 
(May 15, 1916), 105. 

Nations, equality of, a funda- 
mental belief of President Wil- 
son's, 149, 153. 

Naturalization, mention of, in 
American-Japanese discus- 

sions, 188. 

Navy, President's address on 
ideals of service for the, 266- 
268; place of, in President's 
preparedness program, 290. 

Nebra'skan, attacked by subma- 
rine, 70 n. 

Neutrality, proclamation of, is- 
sued by President Wilson at 
outbreak of European war, 44 ; 
President's appeal to Ameri- 
cans in regard to, 46. 225-227 ; 
President's conception of, 46- 



INDEX 



423 



47; dangers of, shown by Ger- 
man policy regarding mari- 
time warfare, 54; fresh state- 
ment by President as to (April 
8, 1915), 58-59; new note 
struck in interpretation of, in 
statement to Associated Press, 
59, 249-254; the dealing with 
German demands becomes a 
business of, 63 ; continued 
change in President's attitude 
toward, "j"] ; denial of our right 
to, by Germany, given as rea- 
son for our sending an army 
to Europe, 146; issuance of 
first formal proclamation of, 
225 n. ; extracts from Presi- 
dent's addresses on (April, 
1915), 247-254; note of Secre- 
tary Lansing to Great Britain, 
championing cause of, 286-287. 

Niagara Falls, conference of 
mediation at, 38. 

Nicaragua, relations between 
United States and, at opening 
of Wilson's first administra- 
tion, 5 n. ; case of non-recogni- 
tion concerning, in 1855, 7 n. ; 
conditions of treaty ratified 
with, in spring of 1916, 84. 

Norway, favourable response re- 
ceived from, to world peace 
plan (1913), 12 n. 



Omaha Commercial Club ad- 
dress (October 5, 1916), 123, 
126; extract from, 351-352. 

Orders in Council, British, of 
1914, 49; legality of changes 
made by, denied by American 
government, 57 ; exchange of 
notes with Great Britain over 

(1915). 75-76. 
O'Shaughnessy, Nelson, Ameri- 
can charge at Mexico City, 31. 



Panama Canal, policy to which 
United States is forced by ob- 
ligations respecting, 117-118. 

Panama Canal Act of 1912, 
provisions of, protested by 
Great Britain, 5, 

Panama Canal tolls, question of, 
5 ; position taken by President 
Wilson concerning, 28-30 ; 
triumph of President Wilson 
in fight for repeal of exemp- 
tion clause, 38; motives actu- 
ating President in repeal of, 
153; text of address of Presi- 
dent to Congress asking for 
repeal of, 207-209. 

Pan-American conference to 
consider Mexican affairs, "JZ- 

74. 
Pan-American International 

High Commission, creation of, 

83 n. 
Pan-Americanism, President 

Wilson's remarks concerning, 

75- 

Pan-American program of Wil- 
son administration, as set 
forth in President's speech of 
January 6, 19 16, 82-83, 300-302. 

Pan-American Scientific Con- 
gress, second meeting of, 82, 

Papen, Franz von, recall of, TJ. 

Peace, President's address on 
preservation of foundations of 
(October 11, 191 5), 283-285; 
steps necessary for a world 
peace, stated in President's ad- 
dress to Senate (January 22, 
1917), 362-370. 

" Peace without victory," sug- 
gested by President Wilson, 
135 ; text of address on, 362- 
370. 

Pershing, General, expedition 
led by, into Mexico, 96; with- 
drawal of trops of, 142 n. 



424 



INDEX 



'Persia, sinking of the, 85-86. 

Peru, favourable response re- 
ceived from, to world peace 
plan (1913), 12 n. ; recogni- 
tion accorded newly estab- 
lished government in (Febru- 
ary, 1914), 27 n. 

Philadelphia, President Wilson's 
address at, in 1913, 20; speech 
at, after sinking of Lusitania 
("Too proud to fight" 
speech), 66-67, 256-261; ad- 
dress at (July 4, 1914), deal- 
ing with President's ideals and 
purposes in his foreign policy, 
219-225. 

Philippine Islands, independence 
of, in Democratic platform for 

1912, 3 n. ; references to inde- 
pendence of, by President 
Wilson, 3-4; first statements 
of President's intended policy 
toward, 19-20; ultimate inde- 
pendence of, stressed in Presi- 
dent's message of December, 

1913, 25 n., 205-206; change in 
President's policy toward, as 
shown by signing of Jones 
bill, 1 18-120; provisions of 
Jones bill regarding, ii9n. ; 
effect of President's funda- 
mental belief in democracy on 
policy toward, 152; text of 
President's message to citizens 
of (October 6, 1913)1 195-196; 
text of President's message to 
Congress (December 8, 1914), 
dealing with increased self- 
government in, 232. 

Pope, President Wilson's reply 
to the. T48, 408-411. 

Porto Rico, greater powers in 
self-government asked for, in 
President's message of De- 
cember, 1913, 25 n. 

Preparedness, program of, pro- 



posed in President's third an- 
nual message, 80-82, 293-300; 
outline of plan for, in Man- 
hattan Club address (Novem- 
ber 4, 1915), 77-78, 287-293; 
program of, dwelt on by 
President in addresses in Feb- 
ruary, 1916, 91-92; purchase 
of Danish West Indies a part 
of program of, 117-118; prep- 
araton of American people 
to accept new attitude toward 
relations to rest of world a 
part of program of, 129; ex- 
tract from President's address 
on spirit of a program of, 
282-283 ". text of typical speech 
by President, delivered in ten 
days' tour (January, 1916), 
306-309. 

Press Club. New York, address 
(June 30, 1916), 114, 336-338. 

Public opinion, as an element 
conditioning direction of for- 
eign affairs by President Wil- 
son, 150-15 1 ; submission by 
President of his foreign policy 
to test of, 152; text of address 
by President on importance 
of, 336-338. 

Purposes of United States, ex- 
tracts from President's ad- 
dresses setting forth (May- 
June, 1916), 329-334- 

Reinsch, P. S., article by, cited, 

5- 

Republican foreign policy, sup- 
posed opposition of Demo- 
cratic party's foreign policy 
to, 4; increasing tendency of 
Wilson administration's policy 
to approach, 116-119. 

Roosevelt, President, " Big Po- 
liceman " course of action 
pursued by, 16 n.; adverse 



INDEX 



425 



comment by, on " peace with- 
out victory " address, 137 n. 

Root, Elihu, arbitration treaties 
negotiated during secretary- 
ship of, 13 n. ; heads commis- 
sion to Russia, 398 n. 

Russia, threatened interruption 
of trade relations with, at 
opening of Wilson's first ad- 
ministration, 6; favourable re- 
sponse received from, to world 
peace plan (1913), 12 n.; 
revolution in, and abdication 
of Czar, 142 ; recognition of 
new government by United 
States, 142; effect of over- 
throw of autocracy on Ameri- 
can feeling, 143 ; communica- 
tion by President Wilson to 
new government of, 145-146; 
reference to, in President's 
address asking for declaration 
of war on Germany, 389 ; ex- 
tract from communication of 
President to provisional gov- 
ernment, stating war aims of 
United States, 398-400. 

Salesmanship Congress, address 
before (July 10, 1916), 115, 
338-342. 

Santa Ysabel, Chihuahua, mas- 
sacre at, 95. 

Scott, J. B., articles by, cited, 
88, 96, 125 n., 143. 

Shadow Lawn addresses (Oc- 
tober-November, 1916), 123, 
124, 126, 127, 128, 129, 352-358. 

Shuster, W. M., " The Mexican 
Menace " by, cited, 27 n. 

Six Power loan to China, Presi- 
dent Wilson's attitude toward, 
9-10; text of President's 
statement declining to request 
American bankers to partici- 
pate in, 181-182. 



Smith, M., article on "Ameri- 
can Diplomacy in European 
War," cited, 62 n., 75. 

South America, President Wil- 
son on dangers involved in 
concessions obtained by for- 
eign companies in, 8, 20-21, 
199-200; arbitration treaties 
with countries of, 41 ; text of 
statement by President Wil- 
son of administration's atti- 
tude toward republics of, 179- 
180. 

Southern Commercial Congress, 
President Wilson's speech be- 
fore (1913), 20-21, 199-202. 

Spain, arbitration treaty signed 
with (September, 1914), 48. 

" Speak, act, and serve together " 
message of President's, 393- 
396. 

Stanwood, E., History of the 
Presidency, cited, 19 n. 

Stone, Senator, letter of Secre- 
tary Bryan to, answering 
charges of discrimination 
against Germany, 53-54; 
President Wilson's letter to 
(February 24, 1916), 94; ex- 
tract from Secretary Bryan's 
letter to, denying charges of 
discrimination against Ger- 
many and Austria, 240-241 ; 
extract from letter by Presi- 
dent to, 309-310. 

Submarine issue, appearance of, 
54-55; exchange of notes be- 
tween Germany and America 
concerning, 56-58; increasingly 
pressing nature of, in spring 
of 1915, 65; Lansing proposals 
of January 18, 1916, relative 
to, 89-90; crisis in relations 
with Germany over, 99 ff. ; list 
of sinkings which involved 
Americans, icon.; growing 



426 



INDEX 



difficulties over, in fall of 1916, 
124-126; list of sinkings in- 
volving Americans after May 
8, 1916, 125 n. ; list of sinkings 
involving Americans in Feb- 
ruary, 1917. 140 n.; extracts 
from Secretary Bryan's com- 
munications to Germany con- 
cerning, 243-247 ; text of first 
Lusitania note, 261-266; sec- 
ond Lusitania note, 270-276; 
third Lusitania note, 276-280; 
extract from Secretary Lan- 
sing's confidential note to En- 
tente allies concerning (Janu- 
ary 18, 1916), 302-306; extract 
from Sussex ultimatum to 
Germany, 316-321 ; President's 
address to Congress concern- 
ing (April 19, 1916), 32^-322. 

Sussex, sinking of, 99; note 
concerning case of, laid be- 
fore joint session of Congress, 
I01-102; special significance of 
case of, 102-103 ; outcome of 
case, 103-105 ; extract from 
ultimatum sent Germany con- 
cerning. 316-321. 

Swarthmorc College address of 
President Wilson, 19-20, 196- 

197. 
Sweden, favourable response re- 
ceived from, to world peace 
plan (1913), 12 n.. 

Taft. W. H., Knox's "dollar 
diplomacy " defended by, 4 n. ; 
favourable comment by, on 
President's *' Peace without 
victory" address, 137 n. 

Taft administration, attempts of, 
to settle Panama Canal ques- 
tions with Colombia and 
Great Britain, 5 n. ; notifica- 
tion given Russia by, of ter- 
mination of treaty of com- 



merce and navigation, 6 n. ; 
policy of non-interference in 
Mexico followed by, 7 ; senti- 
ment for arbitration during, 
22. 

Tampico affair, 31 ; text of ad- 
dress of President to Congress 
following on the, 209-213. 

Tariff, reference to, by Presi- 
dent Wilson in first inaugural 
address, 6. 

" Too proud to fight " speech, 
66-67; text of, 256-261. 

Traditions of America, Presi- 
dent's address on (April 17, 
1916), 99-100, 315-316. 

^-53> points raised by opera- 
tions of, off American coast, 
125 n. 

United States as a world power, 
first open recognition of, by 
President Wilson, 107-108; 
emphasis placed on new posi- 
tion of, in President's speeches 
in 1916, 111-113; idea empha- 
sized in speech of November 
4, 1916, 129. 

Vera Cruz, occupation of, by . 

American force (April, 1914), 

34; withdrawal of American 

troops from, 41. 
Villa raid into New Mexico, 96. 
Virgin Islands, purchase of, by 

United States, 117-118. 

War aims of United States, 
President's statement as to 
(June 9, 1917), 145-146, 398- 
400. 

War zone, proclamation of, 
about British Isles by German 
Admiralty, 54-55. 

Washington, George. reason 
ascribed to, for stating that 



INDEX 



427 



America must keep free from 
entangling alliances, 2)7' 

" Watchful waiting," attitude of, 
toward ^Mexico, 24-25. 

West Point address (June 13, 
1916), 112-113, 331-334. 

William P. Frye, sinking of the, 
65 ; German note on case, 86- 
87. 

Wilson, Woodrow, lack of refer- 
ence to foreign policy by, in 
first inaugural address, 3 ; view 
held by, of future function of 
Democratic party, 6; attitude 
toward Japanase land ques- 
tion in California, 10-14; sends 
John Lind to Mexico, 14-15; 
statement by, as to Mexican 
policy, 15-17; task undertaken 
by, of formulating and inter- 
preting a foreign policy for 
America under Democratic 
rule, 16-17; deep sense of re- 
sponsibility felt by, 17; an- 
nouncement by, as to future 
diplomatic policy, 18; an- 
nounced policy toward de- 
pendencies, 19-20; general 
foreign policy of, as outlined 
in speech before Southern 
Commercial Congress, 20-21 ; 
plans of, for insuring inter- 
national peace, 22-23 ; develop- 
ment of policy of, concerning 
Mexico, 24-28; denial by, of 
rumour of European interfer- 
ence in Mexican policy, 27-28; 
change in pbhcy toward 
Mexico, resulting from events 
at Tampico, 30-34; address 
concerning Mexican affairs, 
before Congress (April 20, 
1914), 33; restores embargo on 
shipment of arms into Mexico, 
34; accepts mediation of A. 
B. C. powers, 34-36; state- 



ment of general policy in 
Mexican matters, 36-40; vin- 
dication of policy toward 
Mexico, 41-42 ; action upon 
outbreak of European war, 
44-49; offer of mediation 
made to belligerent nations by, 
44; appeal of, to Americans, 
to be neutral in fact as well as 
in name, 46; reason for re- 
fraining from protest upon in- 
vasion of Belgium, 47-48; 
point of view at outbreak of 
European war as stated before 
American Bar Association 
(October, 1914), 50; plans of, 
as revealed in second annual 
message to Congress, 50-52; 
stages in development of 
policy, 52 ff. ; insistence by, 
upon neutrality in word and 
deed, 58; policy concerning 
submarine issue and freedom 
of the seas, 64 ff . ; successful 
outcome of policy followed 
toward Carranza government 
in Mexico, 73-75; diplomatic 
controversy with Germany 
viewed as successful in out- 
come, 79 ; official proposal by, 
of program of preparedness, 
80-S2 ; development of first 
half of preparedness program 
of, relating to army and navy, 
80 ff., 109-110; new Pan- 
American program, 82-85 ; 
speeches during ten days' tour 
of New York City and West- 
ern cities (February, 1916), 
91-92; letter to Senator Stone 
(February 24, 1916), 94; ad- 
vocacy by, of league of na- 
tions to preserve peace, 108, 
128, 325-329; stress laid in 
speeches of 1916 on new posi- 
tion of United States as a 



428 



INDEX 



world power, 111-113; ex- 
pressed satisfaction of, with 
his entire foreign policy, 120- 
122 ; campaign speeches in 
1916, 122-129; 349-358; plea 
not emphasized by, that " he 
has kept lis out of war," 124; 
reasons for suggesting a 
"peace without victory," 135; 
a summing up of results of 
leadership of. 149-157; text 
of more important speeches 
and other public utterances of, 
179-411. 



World peace, plan of, 1913 for, 
12, 183-184; foundations of a, 
as stated by President Wilson 
(January, 1917), I37, 362-370. 

Wriston, H. M., "Presidential 
Special Agents in Diplomacy " 
by, 15 n. 

Zimmermann letter, publication 
of, 141-142; authenticity of, 
142 n.; reference to, in Presi- 
dent's address asking for 
declaration of war on Ger- 
many, 389. 



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